Don Lavender, 33° 2913 49th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50310–2250

Brother Grant Wood, the great American painter, is justly famous for his stylized realism in such paintings as "American Gothic."

Most of us, at one time or another, have wished we might be blessed with the ability to do something that would live after we are gone. One such Masonic Brother was artist Grant Wood, 1892–1942. "American Gothic" is Brother Wood's most famous work. An American icon, it has been used commercially and imitated in every form imaginable. Although Wood lived only 50 years, his work was recognized among American artists of his time and is still highly regarded today.

Born in Anamosa, Iowa, on February 13, 1892, Grant Wood was only ten when his father died in 1902. His father's passing left the family in poor financial circumstances. After the loss of the family farm, Wood resorted to doing odd jobs and became the sole support for his mother, sister, and himself. Despite his obligations, he managed to graduate from high school and to keep his family together.

At the edge of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wood bought a lot, for a dollar down and a dollar a month, on which he built a shack. The family survived in large part on the rabbits he trapped. In trade for work he performed for a contractor, he received a lot in town on which he built a real house with money borrowed against the lot.

During World War I, Brother Wood served in the Army doing camouflage work and making money on the side painting portraits of his fellow soldiers. When the war was over, he taught art in the Cedar Rapids schools for seven years. In the summers, he traveled to Paris and to Italy where he studied with contemporary artists. In 1928, Wood was commissioned to do a stained glass window for the American Legion in Cedar Rapids. To learn more about the technique, he went to Munich for two years. In addition to learning about the art of stained glass, he was impressed with the work of German artists, and those impressions influenced his later work. Unfortunately, people in the local community were offended that he had chosen Germany, our former enemy, as a place to learn his art.

One of the groups most vocal about Wood's association with German glassmakers was the Daughters of the American Revolution. Soon after that incident, Wood painted his famous picture entitled "Daughters of Revolution." The dour faces of the three women portrayed in that painting (pictured below) caused a stir because of the artist's obvious satire.

As Wood's work became known, his paintings began to sell for modest prices in the vicinity of $300. His most famous work, "American Gothic" was painted in 1931 and was sold to the Chicago Art Institute at this price, though it is priceless today. Another painting, described as a "fur-trimmed city woman and a roughly dressed farm woman clutching a chicken" sold for $350 in 1934 (photo left). It is valued today at well over a million dollars.

In 1934, Wood became Artist in Residence at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He died of cancer two hours short of his 51st birthday in 1942. Not only have his paintings become popular but also the house in the background of "American Gothic" has been preserved and is a popular tourist attraction today.

Grant Wood was a member of Herman Lodge No. 263 in Cedar Rapids where he was made a Mason in 1921. The Iowa Grand Lodge Library has an original Wood three-panel work titled "Freemasonry" which pictures various Masonic themes.

Wood's stylized realism was greeted with mixed emotions in his lifetime. As a result, he never saw the financial reward he had rightly earned. This article, some 60 years after Bro. Wood's death, remembers him as a Mason and honors his unique contribution to American art.

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Don Lavender is a former Secretary Registrar (1974–79) of the Des Moines, Iowa, Scottish Rite Bodies. He is retired from the City of Des Moines Engineering Department and enjoys the hobbies of instrumental music and photography.