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Grant Wood, of course, was an Iowa treasure, perhaps the state’s greatest gift to the art world.
“American Gothic,” his most famous work, is so familiar that it has been parodied more than any of painting by an American artist. “Arbor Day” was featured on the Iowa quarter. More than half of his work remains in Iowa museums, remarkable in that they are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Despite all that we know about Wood, most Iowans don’t realize that he spent the last summer of his life in a cottage on Clear Lake in 1941 struggling with a cancer he didn't yet know he had, dealing with the trauma of a bitter divorce, and putting the final touches
on two of his paintings: “Spring in Town” and “Spring in the Country.”
Iowa City Author Paul C. Juhl adds this final chapter to Wood’s life with his amazing new history, “Grant Wood’s Clear Lake Summer.” The spiral-bound book is rich in detail and includes a fascinating variety of archival photos from a number of sources. Juhl pored over old newspapers from Mason City, Clear Lake, Iowa City and Des Moines, interviewed nearly two dozen people with intimate knowledge of Wood, and accessed information from scores of books and websites to reconstruct the last year of the artists’ life.
The book also paints a generous picture of a time when America was just entering World War II and, unbeknownst to most people, would leave behind a certain kind of innocence that was taken for granted.
It was the last summer that most of the young men would prowl the beaches and dance halls around Clear Lake; Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s push into Poland changed all that. Although he, like most Americans, devoured the newspaper each day, he spent most of his time in an old train depot he had converted into an art studio with frequent breaks for a swim in the lake, a boat ride to the south shore of Clear Lake for cocktails with friends, or an hours-long card game in which the big loser might find himself with six cents less at the end of the day.
With those types of detail, Wood becomes an everyman that provides a picture of life in a Midwest resort town at mid-century. However, not everyone in the community entertained university presidents, the head of Quaker Oats, or Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace.
But even more fascinating – and revealing – is the details that Juhl provides about the many frustrations affecting the artist at the time.
For instance, few history books provide much detail about Wood’s marriage to and divorce from Sarah Maxon. According to “Juhl’s book,” the split was so bitter that the divorce settlement included a provision that his ex-wife never be allowed to use his name for personal gain.
“Grant Wood’s Clear Lake Summer” also includes interesting information about the artist’s frustrations with his boss at the University of Iowa, and his summer-long negotiations with university president Virgil Hancher to win more independence in the school’s art department, a battle he ultimately won.
At the same time, Wood’s preferred artistic style – regionalism – was the center of a growing debate in the art community, especially among critics who felt that its popularity stood in the way of a modernist movement in the U.S.
In Clear Lake, many of the townspeople knew Wood only as a summer visitor who managed to make a living as a painter and university professor. After he returned to Iowa City at the end of the season, the local newspaper published an article entitled, “Who is Grant Wood,” that focused mostly on his already-famous “American Gothic” painting.
Wood seemed to relish the anonymity. Still, at the end of the season he decided to thank the townspeople by holding a special showing of “Spring in Town” and “Spring in the Country” in a home owned by the parents of Park Rinard, his longtime assistant and, eventually, an aide and confidante to Governor and U.S. Sen. Harold Hughes.
Wood was excited about showing the paintings but decided that none of the rooms were big enough for viewing of the work from a proper distance. So he and Rinard had a wall of the house removed. Scores of residents showed up to see the paintings and to meet Wood.
The need for the extreme makeover of the Park home is symbolic of the way most Iowans have been forced to view Wood’s life in the past: most alluring when seen from a distance.
Wood’s life and his work touched the lives of people and communities across the state: Anamosa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Clear Lake, where he spent lived; places like Eldon, site of the famous American Gothic House; and Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Des Moines, and Iowa City, where his original works are on display today.
Juhl’s masterful book, slim in size but rich in detail, provides a clearer picture of the artist who is so closely identified with the state and is a necessary addition to any collection of books about the state.
“Grant Wood's Clear Lake Summer” is available at the State Historical Building in Des Moines for $15 but only a limited number are available. Or call 319-354-9356 for more information.
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"Clear Lake Summer" Completes Wood's Story
"Grant Wood's Clear Lake Summer"
