Grant Wood
American, 1891-1942
The Pump
INV-1009
Grant Wood
American, 1891-19421937
The Pump
Grant Wood American, 1891-1942 →crayondrawings (visual works)
Date
1937
Medium
Black crayon, with touches of graphite, on cream wove card
Dimensions
13.7 × 10.6 cm (5 7/16 × 4 3/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. Carter Manny Jr. gift in honor of Ada Barnes Manny & Sara Sherman Wood
Grant Wood, famous for his representations of the Midwest—of which the Art Institute’s American Gothic (1930.934) is his most recognizable example—intended The Pump to be an illustration for Sinclair Lewis’s novel Main Street (1920). This image of a contemporary water pump would have been a perfect fit for Lewis’s novel about life in a midwestern town. The drawing was given to the Art Institute by Carter Manny, Jr., who received it as a high school graduation gift from the artist in 1937.
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