Essay Example on Grant Wood lived a relatively normal Life

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Grant Wood lived a relatively normal life He was born on February 13th 1891 in Anamosa Iowa He lived a happy childhood up until when he was ten At that point early in his life his father died Shortly after the father s death Grant s mother moved Grant and his sister Nan to a place called Cedar Rapids In Cedar Rapids Grant attended grammar school and developed an interest in art Later on when attending high school Grant painted the sets for school plays and drew pictures of students When Wood graduated in 1910 he attended the Minneapolis School of Design In the next few years to pass Grant expanded his creativity by learning about making jewelry and creating furniture When he moved to Chicago in 1913 he did these things to make a living In 1916 Grant s mother became ill Grant then left Chicago and moved to Cedar Rapids to care for his mother There he became a teacher at a grammar school to support both his mother and his sister But this did not stop Grant s progress as an artist In the 1920s he visited Europe to study art done by the Impressionists and exhibited his own art in Paris He clearly was inspired by the Impressionists when he came back In 1928 in Germany Grant viewed the works of artists whose attention to detail and realistic portraits staggered his mind

When he returned the influence of those realistic paintings led him to create one of the most recognizable famous critically acclaimed paintings of all time American Gothic American Gothic won 300 dollars when entered in an art show at the Art Institute of Chicago American Gothic also earned Grant notorious fame all over America Once he obtained this new found fame he co founded the Stone City Colony and Art School On February 12 1942 the day before his birthday Grant Wood passed away Grant Wood s style has changed gradually over time First he modeled most of his paintings after the French Impressionists who did their own Impressions of their perspective on life But when visiting Germany in 1928 and viewing the realistic work of German and Flemish artists Grant decided to follow suit and make more realistic paintings to convey the many fond memories of his childhood and home state This shift kicked off the American Regionalist movement And as such Grant became the spokesperson of this movement Grant s paintings and style depicting farmers and families during the Great Depression reminded people of the hard working Americans who helped make this country what it is today Some interesting facts on his style were First he uses repeating patterns second Grant uses similar plants in both Woman with Plants and American Gothic while he uses the same brooch for female characters in Woman with Plants and American Gothic Likewise Grant painted aspects of his childhood in most of his paintings Taking aspects of his life and transferring them to his art was the secret of Grant s success in the art culture of his day Out of Grant Wood's many paintings his most famous is American Gothic American Gothic depicts a farmer and his daughter or wife standing in front of a white farmhouse with a attic window done in the style of Carpenter Gothic 



Notice how the farmer and his daughter are wearing black The daughter wears black under an apron and seems to be trying to fight back tears while the farmer wears a black jacket over his overalls and looks to be in a quiet state of grief The top window s curtains are closed possibly suggesting that somebody died up there explaining the farmer and daughter s cause for mourning Moving away from American Gothic another one of Grant s paintings is Parson Weem's Fable Parson Weem's Fable depicts Parson Weems the creator of the George Washington and cherry tree fable pointing towards a picture of George Washington who is telling his father the clichéd phrase I cannot tell a lie Notice how George s head from Gilbert Stuart s iconic portrait of the president is copied onto the six year old form of George in Grant s painting making him almost instantly recognizable Now we have looked at Parson Weem's Fable Let's take a look at Stone City Iowa This painting depicts a town that is called Stone City for obvious reasons The round hills make for a winding path that leads over the bridge and into the heart of the town After being a boomtown and mining the business busted Here in the painting the town seems to have gone back to its ways of farming and growing crops If you look closely far to the left you can see a window on one of the houses that is almost exactly similar that of to American Gothic Anyone can see that this was likely included on purpose


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