Stone City, Iowa was Grant Wood's first major landscape, painted in the same year as his now famous American Gothic. At the peak of his artistic powers, Stone City, Iowa embodies a reflection on change, a recurring theme in Wood's work that often explored traditional subjects.
This serene, idealized depiction of a community living in harmony with nature subtly acknowledges the shifts caused by industrialization. Stone City, situated along the Wapsipinicon River and 26 miles from Cedar Rapids, had once thrived on its limestone quarries but declined with the advent of Portland cement. Through this landscape, Wood hints at a return to simpler, more natural uses of the land such as grazing and farming.
His fascination with the area persisted, leading him to establish a summer art colony there from 1932 to 1933, fostering a creative community in this transformed setting.
One of his colleagues tried to fire him from the University of Iowa based on moral grounds because of the artist's homosexuality.
Grant Wood was part of American Regionalism. Among its other artists was Norman Rockwell whose Freedom from Want is a celebration of a small-town American life.
