Grant Wood: A Portrait of Rural America Grant Wood, born on February 13, 1891, in Anamosa, Iowa—a small town steeped in Midwestern tradition—was a pivotal figure in the American Regionalist movement. His life and art were inextricably linked to his roots, reflecting a deep-seated fascination with the landscape, people, and values of rural America during a period of rapid industrialization and social change. Wood’s early years on a family farm instilled within him a profound appreciation for the simplicity and dignity of agrarian life, an appreciation that would become the cornerstone of his…