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| "American Gothic," 1930, Art Institute of Chicago |
As all red-blooded Iowans know, back in the fall of 1930 an aspiring Cedar Rapids artist named Grant Wood entered a work he called "American Gothic" in a competitive exhibition of American painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago. Most of the judges didn't much care for the painting, but one --- museum lawyer Percy Eckhart --- did and he generally is credited for lobbying Wood's work into the exhibition.
During late October, exhibition judges awarded what now is considered an American masterpiece the notable, but lesser, Norman Wait Harris Bronze Medal and a $300 cash prize. Friends of the Art Institute purchased the work for its permanent collection, also for $300, where it remains.
As the years passed, works that won the top prizes in Chicago that year have faded into obscurity. "American Gothic," obviously, has not.
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This was long before the era of instant communication, so most Iowans had to wait until November of 1930 to get a glimpse of "American Gothic." On Nov. 16, The Des Moines Sunday Register published an image of the painting, purchased from a syndicator, in its Rotogravure section (below). The syndicator had mistakenly entitled the painting "An Iowa Farmer and His Wife" and The Register repeated that error.
Up in Collins (Story County), Mrs. Earl Robinson studied the image and didn't like what she saw. Her reivew was published in The Sunday Register's "Open Forum" on Nov. 30:
An Iowa Farm Wife Need Not Look Odd
One of Them Disapproves of Grant Woods Type
To the Open Forum Editor:
On gazing at Grant Wood's creation entitled "Iowa Farmer, or whatever it was in the rotogravure section (Sunday Register, Nov. 16) I thought I might have discovered the "missing link."
If this is a typical Iowa farmer and his wife, then heaven help me, for I, too, am an Iowa farmer's wife.
Mr. Wood may have depicted his subjects true to life, but the next time he might choose something wholesome to look at and not such oddities.
I advise him to hang this portrait in one of our fine Iowa cheese factories. That woman's face would positively sour milk.
(signed) Mrs. Earl Robinson, Collins, Ia.
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The Register's editorial page editors stirred the pot a little more in the weekly "Snatches From the Mail" column published on the Open Forum Page on Sunday, Dec. 14:
The women are still somewhat piqued about that painting of Grant Wood's (Rotogravure, Nov. 16) entitled "Iowa Farmer and His Wife." Protests Mrs. Inez Keck of Washta:
"Had this painting of the inordinately "solemncholy" couple been labelled "Return From the Funeral," or some equally sad title, I would say nothing. But if Grant Wood thinks that his painting portrays the average Iowa farm couple, he doesn't know Iowa farmers. Perhaps he has not been in Iowa since he was a little boy, and that must have been in the 'dear dead days beyond recall,' for no Iowa couple that I've ever known (and I'm no spring chicken myself) looks as sad as Wood's painting. Not one of the men carries a THREE-tined pitchfork when having his portrait painted, neither does he wear a "boiled" shirt --- minus a collar."
And Mrs. Ray R. Marsh, who also lives at Washta, declares that "if this is all our work and progress has brought us (Iowa farmers' wives), we might as well quit the job and take up bootlegging or some other up-to-date job! We at least have progressed beyond the three-tined pitchfork stage!"
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Meanwhile, over in Cedar Rapids and elsewhere, the artist, his family, friends and admirers were marshalling their forces and the result was published as a major section of The Register's Open Forum page on Sunday, Dec. 21.
The lead letter was from the artist himself, who appears to have had tongue firmly planted in cheek (there's no indication, for example, that Wood ever planned a companion piece to "American Gothic," featuring a Mission-style bungalow and a more horizontal couple). Here's Grant Wood's letter:
The lead letter was from the artist himself, who appears to have had tongue firmly planted in cheek (there's no indication, for example, that Wood ever planned a companion piece to "American Gothic," featuring a Mission-style bungalow and a more horizontal couple). Here's Grant Wood's letter:
He Himself Explains 'American Gothic'
Any northern town old enough to have some buildings dating back to the civil war is liable to have a house or church in the American Gothic style. I simply invented some American Gothic people to stand in front of a house of this type.
It was my intention, later, to do a Mission bungalow painting as a companion piece, with Mission bungalow types standing in front of it. The accent then, of course, would be put on the horizontal instead of the vertical.
The people in "American Gothic" are not farmers but are smalltown, as the shirt on the man indicates. They are American, however, and it is unfair to localize them to Iowa.
... Of course, all this discussion, pro and con, is flattering as it indicates an interest in what I am doing. (signed) Grant Wood, 5 Turner Alley, Cedar Rapids, Ia.
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Most prominently displayed was a letter from Nan Wood Graham, one of the "American Gothic" models, published under the headline, "What the Woman Who Posed Says." There's no indication in The Register that Mrs. Graham was the artist's sister.
This rather glamorous portrait of Nan was painted the next year, in 1931, in part some say, to compensate for her "sour milk" countenance in the earlier work.
"I am writing to you because I am the woman who posed for Mr. Grant Wood when he made his famous painting, "American Gothic."
This rather glamorous portrait of Nan was painted the next year, in 1931, in part some say, to compensate for her "sour milk" countenance in the earlier work.
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| "Portrait of Nan," 1931, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisc. |
"I am writing to you because I am the woman who posed for Mr. Grant Wood when he made his famous painting, "American Gothic."
When Mr. Wood asked me to pose for him, he showed me some pictures of old Gothic stone carvings from a cathedral in France, and asked me if I could pull my face out long and look like some of the women in the carvings. I told him some of my neighbors looked like that just naturally, but he explained that he couldn't ask them to pose without hurting their feelings, so I gladly consented to pose and still consider it a great honor ... (No Iowa woman) should feel hurt about the painting if I don't, unless as I suspect she sees some resemblance to herself!
Mr. Wood told me he had found an American Gothic style house in a small town, and imagined American Gothic people with long, solemn, Gothic faces to go with it.
I am not supposed to be the gentleman's wife, but his daughter. I get my ash blond hair from my mother's side of the family; papa keeps a feed store --- or runs the village post office, or perhaps he preaches in the little church ... Anyhow, he is a very religious person. When he comes home in the evening, our Jersey cow out in the barn starts to moo, and so father takes off his white collar, pulls on overalls and an old coat, and goes out to hay the cow ...
I am supposed to be one of those terribly nice and proper girls who get their chief joy in life out of going to Christian Endeavor and frowning horribly at the young couples in back seats if they giggle or whisper ...
I wish that jealous woman would send me her photograph. I have a very appropriate place to hang it. (signed) Mrs. E.E. Graham, Cedar Rapids
Excerpts from several other letters, all supportive, also were published, including the following:
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Excerpts from several other letters, all supportive, also were published, including the following:
Frances Prescott, Cedar Rapids: ... Mr. Wood is the product of Iowa farm parents and knows of what sterling stuff they are made, and he holds the middle west farmer and his family in the highest esteem ... Mr. Wood is kindly and gentle in his attitude toward his friends and neighbors, many of whom are from the farms and small towns of the middle west ... Those who know him well realize that cynicism and sarcasm are not his weapons.
Myrtle E. McIntyre, Anamosa: ... As Mr. Wood was born on an Iowa farm and comes of Iowa stock, I am sure he had no notion of criticizing or making light of Iowa farmers ... This picture was not painted in New York, or Paris, but by an Iowa man living in an Iowa town.
Frank I. Weaver, Omaha: Of course, Nebraska would like to claim Grant Wood. It appreciated his artistic ability long before he was recognized in his native state ... He is personally popular in Omaha and I am suggesting that if Iowa does not treat him better than recent letters to the Open forum indicate, he move to Omaha ... Judging from The Register, Iowa people are still persecuting Grant Wood, even though he has become Iowa's foremost artist. Shame on Iowa!
I was most intrigued, however, by this excerpt from a letter written by Arnold Pyle, subject of another 1930 Grant Wood work, "Arnold Comes of Age," below. Although not identified as such, Pyle, when he was writing, was the artist's studio assistant and protege.
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I was most intrigued, however, by this excerpt from a letter written by Arnold Pyle, subject of another 1930 Grant Wood work, "Arnold Comes of Age," below. Although not identified as such, Pyle, when he was writing, was the artist's studio assistant and protege.
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| "Arnold Comes of Age," 1930, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Neb. |
Arnold Pyle, Cedar Rapids: I was very much surprised and not a little disappointed to read the criticisms in your column of Grant wood's painting, "American Gothic." Most of the objection seems to arise from the title adopted by your paper. I refer to "An Iowa Farmer and his Wife," which is not the title at all. It must take a good memory to recall when Iowa farmers were prosperous enough to work in starched shirts.
Grant Wood first became acquainted with Pyle when the latter was a Cedar Rapids eighth-grader and the older artist encouraged his work while instructing him in an art class. After graduating from high school, Arnold went to work as Wood's studio assistant, building frames, running errands and incorporating lessons from the master into his own work.
The portrait was painted to commemorate his 21st birthday.
A developing artist of some promise, Pyle served as a faculty member at the Stone City Art Colony during 1932 and 1933 and was deeply involved in Iowa's art scene until the outbreak of World War II (and Wood's 1942 death).
Pyle went to work for Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids and made a career of it --- not returning to painting until he retired during 1968.
He had very few years left, however, and in a somewhat bizarre twist of fate was killed in an automobile crash on June 9, 1973, while returning to Cedar Rapids from Anamosa where he had just attended the first annual Grant Wood Art Festival.
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Grant Wood first became acquainted with Pyle when the latter was a Cedar Rapids eighth-grader and the older artist encouraged his work while instructing him in an art class. After graduating from high school, Arnold went to work as Wood's studio assistant, building frames, running errands and incorporating lessons from the master into his own work.
The portrait was painted to commemorate his 21st birthday.
A developing artist of some promise, Pyle served as a faculty member at the Stone City Art Colony during 1932 and 1933 and was deeply involved in Iowa's art scene until the outbreak of World War II (and Wood's 1942 death).
Pyle went to work for Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids and made a career of it --- not returning to painting until he retired during 1968.
He had very few years left, however, and in a somewhat bizarre twist of fate was killed in an automobile crash on June 9, 1973, while returning to Cedar Rapids from Anamosa where he had just attended the first annual Grant Wood Art Festival.
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