Grant Wood was born on a farm near the small town of Anamosa, in 1891.  By painting simple scenes of the land and people he knew best, he helped create an important, all-American style of art.  Grant Wood’s paintings show the love he had for the people and customs of the Midwestern United States.  Grant Wood particularly loved the farmland of Iowa.  While growing up, he enjoyed feeling the soft, warm soil between his toes as he walked barefoot through the fields.  In his painting Young Corn it seems like the round, friendly hills are protecting the farmer and his children while they work in their fields.

   He loved gadgets and making things, and he worked slowly and carefully at all of his crafts.  He was even able to use his artistic talent when he joined the army during World War 1.  His job was to paint camouflage on tanks and cannons.  During this time, American art students were often encouraged to study and paint in the style of the great 19^th century French Impressionist artists.  In 1920, Grant decided to travel to Europe to study artists like Pierre Bonnard, Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro.  It was after his trip to Germany that Grant found a way to paint that was all his own.  He decided to paint the subjects he knew and loved, using some of the simple ideas of the old European masters.  Grant realized that scenes of the people and places he knew while growing up were as beautiful and important as anything he had seen in Europe. 

   In Woman with Plants, Grant painted his mother as a strong and loving frontier woman.  He placed her in a farm landscape and paid special attention to the decorative stitching on her dress, the cameo around her neck, the potted plant and other details that were important to her.  People all over Iowa were proud of Grant’s portrait of his mother.  It was one of the first paintings about the Midwest that seemed like it was done by someone who really knew and understood the people there.  Grant kept working in his new style and soon painted his most famous picture, American Gothic.

   One day, while Grant was looking for something interesting to paint, he discovered a farmhouse with an unusual window.  The arch-shaped window was based on a style of European architecture from the Middle Ages called Gothic architecture.  Grant liked the contrast of a European window on an American farmhouse.  After he made sketches of the house, Grant looked for just the right people to go with it.  He thought his family dentist and his own sister, Nan, would be perfect for the farmer and his daughter.  Grant entered American Gothic in a big show at the Art Institute of Chicago, and won the third place prize.  People all over America loved the newspaper pictures they saw of it.  Soon, Grant’s paintings started to become very popular.  One reason for this was that many people felt Grant’s art was easier to understand than a lot of the new modern art being done.   Another reason Grant’s paintings became so popular was that they came along during a rough time in history known as the Great Depression.

   The depression caused many people to lose their jobs and savings.  It made people feel better to look at Grant Wood’s painting of beautiful farmlands and proud, hard-working families who helped make America great.  Grant also painted pictures of famous American legends.  While growing up, he had loved the stories he heard about George Washington and Paul Revere.  In Midnight Ride of Paul Revere Grant showed the story as he imagined it as a child.  He painted broccoli-shaped trees and toy-like houses.  The roads go off into the background and seem to glow in the dark.  Grant gave his painting an almost fairytale look.  Paul Revere’s horse even looks more like a wooden rocking horse than a real horse!