GRANT WOOD, Churning

Madeline Darrough Horn, Farm on the Hill, New York and London, 1936, illustrated in color on the cover and opposite p. 32
Alice Graeme, "Grant Wood Illustrates A Book," The American Magazine of Art, June 1936, vol. 29, no. 6, p. 411, 412
W.J. Petersen, ed. "A Grant Wood Sampler," The Palimpsest, January 1972, vol. LII, no. 1, illustrated

Churning was one of eight illustrations Grant Wood produced for Madeline Darrough Horn’s children’s book Farm on the Hill, published in 1936 by Charles Scribner and Sons, and the only children’s book for which Wood ever created illustrations. Churning appears in the chapter entitled “Stories Grandma Told.” It begins, “‘Grandma, let me churn awhile. You rest and tell us a story. Tell us something that happened when you were a little girl,’ said Bill. Grandma had been churning very hard, so she was glad to sit down in her rocking chair and rest.” (Farm on the Hill, p. 31).  The accompanying illustration depicts grandson Bill, barefoot and clad in his denim overalls ready at the butter churn, a satisfied farm cat sitting by his side licking his whiskers after emptying a nearby bowl of milk. Both Horn’s clear-cut characters and Wood’s simple silhouetted figures suggested a rural simplicity and offer a nostalgic image to a nation suffering the harsh conditions of the Great Depression. According to James Dennis, “Wood’s stylized farmscapes and farm figures embody that perpetual American dream as no other American artist had done before” (Grant Wood: A Study in American Art and Culture, New York 1975, p. 13).

Wanda Corn, in a discussion of this period of Wood’s career comments: “After 1934 the bulk of Wood’s work took the form of prints and illustrations and other short-term projects that were quick and easy sources of income. He took on assignments for book jackets and did a series of crayon-and-charcoal drawings for Farm on the Hill, a children’s book by Madeline Darrough Horn, the wife of a university colleague. Horn’s story was an ideal vehicle for the artist. The adventures of two town boys visiting their grandparent’s farm for a summer gave Wood an opportunity to rework his favorite cast of characters” (Grant Wood: The Regionalist Vision, New Haven, Connecticut, 1983, p. 49).

By the time the book was published, Wood was already well known for his distinct artistic vision of America’s heartland. The Walker Galleries in New York exhibited Wood’s illustrations in the spring of 1936 and the art critics enthusiastically praised the artist’s agrarian images. In a review, Alice Graeme wrote: “The pictures have a naturalness that is achieved with artistry, despite a manner which might easily have made them lifeless and wooden. Perhaps it is the fact that the farm personages, Grandma, Grandpa, the boys, the hired man and girl, and all the animals have each been given a definite stamp of individual character through restrained but telling detail … Wood as an illustrator is Wood at his best. His humor, design and human commentary all contribute to the success of the series. It is a field to which his talents are well suited, and it is true that the drawings are indeed above the average in originality and craftsmanship” ("Grant Wood Illustrates A Book," The American Magazine of Art, June 1936, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 411-412).