Collection: Grant Wood

Born in rural Iowa, American painter Grant Wood (1891-1942) would parlay his small-town vision into a creative vision recognizable throughout the world. Having studied in Paris at the famed Académie Julien, he spent some time exploring and working in an Impressionist style. Unlike the loose, fleeting aspect of French Impressionists, American painters interpreted the Impressionist ideas of color and light into a more traditional, academic style of painting. Wood's representational art and crisp style translated well into his portraits and landscapes of Midwestern life. He has become an icon of American art, and perhaps Iowa's most famous son.