Grant Wood

Grant Wood (1892-1942), American painter, born in Anamosa, Iowa, and trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Académie Julian in Paris. He taught art in the public schools of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from 1919 to 1924, and he served as artist in residence at the University of Iowa from 1935 to 1942. Wood is best known for his later paintings, which depict the scenes and people of his native Iowa. A leader in the regionalist school of 20th-century American art (see American Art and Architecture: Regionalism), he was strongly influenced by the subject matter and technique of various German and Flemish painters of the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century). In translating their stylized formality to the American scene, however, he added his own distinctive touches of irony and realism. This satirical treatment can be observed in Wood's most famous work, the double portrait American Gothic (1930, Art Institute of Chicago), and in Daughters of the Revolution (1932, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio.)