Grant Wood:
Daughters of Revolution (1932): This relentlessly horizontal painting features three dour spinstresses--one holding a teacup in my grandmother's Blue Willow china pattern--standing self-righteously in front of Emanuel Leutz's painting
Washington Crossing the Delaware. The local Daughters of the Revolution chapter was furious with Grant Wood for studying the art of stained glass in Germany--the enemy!--soon after World War I as he prepared to create a massive stained-glass window commemorating the soldiers of America’s last six wars. So he painted the DAR spinsptisses standing in front of a cherished Revolutionary War painting depicting a cherished moment in American folklore ... that was painted by a German. It was a brilliant political cartoon encapsulated in a masterful Regionalist painting by Cedar Rapids’ still-celebrated native son.
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