Essay Example on Grant Wood lived a relatively normal Life

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