Grant Wood Art Gallery

[Abby Brown] One of the most famous paintings was created by an Iowan almost a hundred years ago. And the local Iowa landscape was his inspiration. Let's learn more about Iowa's most notable artist.

(Map marking Jones County in eastern Iowa.)

This is American Gothic, a 1930 well known painting by artist Grant Wood.

(A painting of a stern-faced farmer and his daughter standing in front of a house. The farmer is holding a three pronged pitch fork. He has no hair and is wearing blue jean overalls and a white button up shirt under a suit jacket. He has circular, metal framed glasses. His daughter stands to his left. She has her blonde hair in a bun. She is also stern faced. She is wearing a dress with long black sleeves and a stiff white collar. The dress has a red and white patterned overlay. There is a cameo broach pinned to her dress at her throat.)

The models in the painting are actually his sister and his dentist.

And the house in the background caught his eye when Wood was out on a drive in Eldon, Iowa. It gave him the idea for what turned into an artistic masterpiece.

That wasn't the only time the local sights inspired this famous painter. His signature style was based on what he saw all around him in his home state.

Grant Wood was born here in Anamosa in 1891, and now there's a Grant Wood Art Gallery Museum to celebrate his work and educate anyone who visits. On one side of the gallery you can see artwork Wood created when he was younger.

(A painting of a young woman in a red pompom hat holding a rooster talking with another woman in a fur coat.)

(A painting of three women standing together. One woman is holding a dainty, china tea cup with a blue and white pattern.)

On the other side are works from his later years. When his American Gothic painting became famous, Wood knew that that was the style people expected from him. So he got to work and created about 30 more pieces of art in the same fashion.

(A painting of an unsmiling woman with long wavy blonde hair and wearing a black and white poka–dot shirt sits in a wooden chair holding a chick and a plum.)

(A painting of a farm and the rolling hills surrounding it.)

There are certain paintings that have clues that the local land was Woods's muse - or creative influence. Like “Death on Ridge Road,” painted in 1935. It was inspired by a street near Stone City, another town in Jones County that Grant Wood spent some time in.

(A painting of a winding road through a hilly landscape where a truck and a car are positioned to crash.)

Grant Wood wasn't just a famous artist who lived and worked in Iowa, he made Iowa part of who he was. And even though he died a long time ago, 1942, his creative view of Iowa life and the landscape he saw around him still lives on.

We can see it and admire it in the galleries and museums all over our state and the country, even here in Wood’s birthplace of Anamosa, Iowa.

Every county in Iowa has its own style. And in Jones County, that style inspired the brush strokes of a very famous artist.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.