July Fifteenth

Maker Grant Wood (American, 1891 - 1942)

Collections

American Print Selections

ClassificationsPRINTS

Date1939

Mediumlithograph

Dimensions9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm.) sheet: 11 15/16 x 16 in. (30.3 x 40.6 cm.)

SignedSigned in lower right of recto in graphite: Grant Wood

InscribedSigned in lower right of recto in graphite: Grant Wood

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation © Estate of Grant Wood/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Status

Not on view

Label TextThomas Craven, a critic who championed Regionalism, called this lithograph "the very essence of fertility…the portrait of America's most valuable wealth. No dust bowl here, no starved cattle or skulls bleaching on cracked surfaces." Wood's images of farming ignore the massive displacement of farmers due to the Dust Bowl and mechanization. Between 1920 and 1950 the number of American farmers decreased by almost nine million, as people left the Great Plains for opportunities elsewhere.

Object number86.20