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Tree Planting Group

Artist / Maker Grant Wood (American, 1892 - 1942)

Date1937

MediumLithograph on paper

Dimensions8 3/8 x 10 7/8 in. (21.3 x 27.6 cm)

ClassificationsPrints and Printing Plates

Credit LineGift of I.H. Pace. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2003.213

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

EditionEdition of 250. Published by the Associated American Artists.

Label TextWood often borrowed from his childhood memories of a one-room school near Anamosa. His sister Nan related: "As Grant meandered to and from school each day, he observed the world around him-the plowed fields, the growing corn, the seasons, the animals, the people, and the little country school. In later years, he immortalized these scenes in painting titled Young Corn, Fall Plowing, Spring Turning, and Arbor Day". This print is a reprise to that latter painting. Wood deeply respected his nurturing teachers and pays artistic homage to them. Wood, an educator himself, taught art in the Cedar Rapids public schools until 1925. He resumed formal teaching in 1932 as co-director of the Stone City Art Colony for two years. His fellow director Adrian Dornbush, a former Dubuque resident and Art Association president, taught many Dubuque area students. "Tree Planting Group was the very first lithograph created by Grant Wood. In this work the brilliant American artist shows himself to be a master of the medium. Rich tonal values, superb draftsmanship, competent handling, and excellent composition make this work an effort fully worthy of Grant Wood's talent. Further, the choice of subject is a happy one for it is but fitting that a typical annual Midwestern Arbor Day event to be recorded by so able a graphic reporter of the American scene. The schoolhouse, the big boys of the class with their home haircuts doing the important work, the teacher, and the landscape all lend charm to the picture. The work is one that can be lived with as with all of Grant Wood's creations for constant association brings increased pleasure" R. L. December 6, 1937

PeriodAmerican Regionalism

SignedHandwritten, signed in pencil, lower right: Grant Wood 1937

StyleAmerican Regionalism

Locations