b. Feb. 13, 1891, near Anamosa, Iowa
d. Feb. 12, 1942, Iowa City, Iowa.

There are many articles available on the art and life of Grant Wood. Rather than repeat what others have said, we present here a chronological history.

His father was Francis Maryville Wood. He married Hatie Weaver and their children were four - Frank, Grant, Jack and Nan. When his father died on March 11, 1901, the family sold the farm and moved to NE 14th St. in Cedar Rapids. Grant attended Washington High School, where he became close friends with Marvin Cone. The two became school staff artists for any project that came up.

1910: Graduation from Washington High, takes the train to Minneapolis to attend the Handicraft Guild. Ernest Batchelder was there that summer. Wood and friend Harold Kelly sleep outdoors in Loring Park.

1911 - Spring: In Cedar Rapids, he becomes an “illustrator” in partnership with Paul C. Hanson, Photographer. This lasted only until summer when he returns to Minneapolis.

1911 - Late Summer: Back in Iowa, he takes the Iowa Teachers Exam. His poor school grades get him only a provisional teachers certificate for one year.

1911-12: Wood teaches at Rosedale - a one-room country school, three miles from Cedar Rapids.

1913 - Spring: Takes a job at Kalo Silversmiths in Chicago. In late summer he takes night classes at the Art Institute for five months.

1914 - Spring: Forms a partnership with Christopher Hago to do silversmithing. they open the “Wolund” shop in a farmhouse in suburban Park Ridge. It closes in Jan. 1916.

1916 - Spring: Wood returns to Cedar Rapids and finds his mother about to be evicted from home. Paul Hanson (see 1911) has two shacks on some land outside Cedar Rapids. Hanson and his wife lived in one, The Woods (Grant, mother and sister Nan) moved into the other. Paul and Grant decide to build two houses on the property. Paul puts up credit for materials.

1917 - Spring: Each family moves into new houses. Grant with his mother and Nan. All the while Grant has been painting. In September, Grant enlists in the Army. The family needs income. After training at Camp Douglas near Des Moines he goes to Washington to do camouflage work. He was still there when the war ended. He arrives back home on Christmas Eve, 1918.

1919: Miss Frances Prescott, principal of Jackson Junior High hires Grant as an art teacher.

1920: Wood and Marvin Cone go to France for the summer.

1922: Grant moves to McKinley High when Miss Prescott becomes the new principal.

1923 - Fall: Back to France to study at Julien’s Academy. Age 32. He has a years leave of absence from teaching. He spent 14 months in Europe. When Paris is too cold, he and friends go to Sorrento.

1924: Wood arrives back in New York with no money. Misunderstood at immigration when he said he needed to get to Iowa, perhaps due to his slow speech, he was placed on a train for Iowa with a group of Czech immigrants.

1924-1926: He brought with him from this last trip to Europe, a large number of sketches of French subjects. By this time sister Nan had married Edward Graham. Grant returns to McKinley High. He also does considerable work as an interior decorator. David Turner, a mortuary owner and for whom Grant had produced a painting, offers the Woods (Grant and his mother), rent free, a large garage. (Turner would, over the years, purchase a number of paintings from Grant.) The building was formerly a stable with a hayloft - an area where Grant could paint full time. After converting it into living space, Grant and his mother move in. Grant names it “5 Turner Alley.” It became a popular place. He resigned his teaching job after the 1924-15 school year, to devote full time to painting. In 1926 he returns to France to hold a Paris expo of his French works at the Gallerie Carmine. He borrowed money to get there, sold some works, but in the United States the show received no notice.

1927: Wood applies for a commission to do a large stained glass window for the Cedar Rapids Memorial Building. He was granted $6,000 and it would take him two years to complete.

1929: On a trip to Eldon Iowa he saw a small house with a curious gothic window. it was the house he was looking for as the background for “American Gothic.” He receives two commissions for portraits and also does one of his mother.

1930: The work “Stone City” is in progress, “Arnold (Pyle) Comes of Age” wins the sweepstakes at the Iowa Art Solon at the State Fair. “American Gothic” appears at the Chicago Art Institute Annual Exhibition. The Institute bought it for $300, In the work, sister Nan was the woman and town dentist Dr. McKeeby was the man.

1932: “Daughters of Revolution”, “Arbor Day Tree Planting” and “Fruits of Iowa” are completed. He also does a portrait of Nan and takes part in the Stone City Art Colony at Stone City Iowa.

1933: The art colony is short lived. This is it’s last year.

1934: Begins work on “Dinner for Threshers”. The PWAP (Public Works of Art Project) is organized in Iowa under Wood’s direction. Thirty four artists at studying at the University of Iowa in Iowa City under Wood’s direction. He commutes 28 miles to do that.

1935: Grant marries Sara Maxon on March 2nd. The Woods leave Turner Alley and moved to Iowa City. Grant buys a house for $3,500 on a mortgage at 1142 East Court Street. Mrs. Wood moved with him once the house was ready. Mrs. Wood died on October 11th, with only Grant with her. The other siblings could not get there in time. She was buried in Anamosa, Iowa.

1936: He spent time as an illustrator, particularly for two books: Farm on the Hill, a children's book by Madeline Hone; and for a limited edition of Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. He received his first honorary degree - from the University of Wisconsin. A drawing of himself receiving a degree later became the subject of one of his lithographs.

1937: The old mansion at Stone City had a lithographic shop, but Grant had not found the time to use it. Now, needing a way for getting a larger distribution of his work, he turned to lithography and to Associated American Artists for publishing and distribution. For a work table, he had purchased an old pulpit where he worked on the litho stones. His first litho, “Tree Planting Group” was sold out by AAA before it had been completed. He considered the medium to be “a democratic experiment, like Currier and Ives” and “I plan to do considerable work in it.” Reeves Lewenthal of AAA took charge of Grant’s business affairs.

1938: Grant’s marriage collapses this year and ends in divorce. The IRS calls on him for failure to file income tax returns. He has difficulties with the faculty at Iowa City as to what the art courses should be. This is the year in which he did the four-part lithograph “Fruits”, “Vegetables”, “Tame Flowers” and “Wild Flowers”. Sister Nan was to tint them with water color. The only lithos done so, but as that took some time, the release was not until 1939 and she spent four years finishing the set. This year he paints “Parson Weems’ Fable”, all about George Washington, and it causes an uproar among those who felt it diminished the stature of the first President.

1939-40: Nine lithographs in 1939, one in 1940 - “Approaching Storm”, his next to the last. He does work hard on oil painting however while on time off from the University, and sells everything he paints. By the end of 1940 he has mostly paid off the debts and the taxes that he incurred by his lifestyle during his marriage.

1941-42: His arguments with the University as to his position and the art curriculum are resolved with Grant becoming a full professor, with a separate studio area, but his students do not register through the regular art department, they register through a separate office - this mollifies the other faculty. In the summer he travels to Clear Lake, Iowa, where an old depot is being converted into a summer arts school. In the fall it is back to Iowa City for the new term. He teaches for three weeks and then asks for a leave. He had a lecture tour arranged on the East Coast. On returning to Iowa City, he enters the hospital on Nov. 24th. His digestive pain has no ready explanation so an exploratory is set for December 19. The doctors find he has cancer. He was too weak to go home, so he is allowed to stay in the hospital. He dies there on Feb. 12, 1942. He is buried in Anamosa.