%C2%A9 Figge Art Museum%2C successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham %2F Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society %28ARS%29%2C NY
Sentimental Yearner, 1936
Grant Woodexpand_more
Graphite, black and white Conté crayon, white gouache, on brown kraft paperexpand_more
Gift of Mr. Alan Goldsteinexpand_more 80.91
Not on Viewexpand_more
This is one of nine drawings Grant Wood produced for the deluxe illustrated edition of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street (1920, 1937). While Lewis was harshly satiric in his portrayal of the residents of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, Wood interpreted them good-naturedly, drawing on his own experience of the types he knew in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he lived. Wood’s model for the sappy Sentimental Yearner in this drawing was his friend Charles Sanders, a journalism professor at the University of Iowa. Wood conceived of the character as a painfully earnest fop. He’s so sensitive, he can be transported by a tiny carnation, a detail of Wood’s own devising. Though the character is dressed like a diplomat, his ensemble, including the comically dainty bow tie, may well have come from the pages of the Sears Roebuck catalogue, a favorite resource of Wood’s.
Details
- Title
- Sentimental Yearner
- Artist Life
- 1891 - 1942
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- 80.91
- Provenance
- the artist (1936-'d.1942; offered in 1937 for $500 to Art Institute of Chicago); his sister, Nan Wood Graham, Riverside, California (from '1942); [Associated American Artists, New York]. Mr. and Mrs. Albert L. Hydeman, York, Pennsylvania and Chilmark, Massachusetts (by 1958-73; sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, December 13-14, 1973, no. 47, for $10,000, to Maroney); [James Maroney, New York, 1973-79; sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, October 25, 1979, no. 229, for $22,000, to Goldstein]; Alan Goldstein, New York (1979-80; gave to MIA)
- Curator Approved
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© Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY