Arnold Comes of Age | |
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Artist | Grant Wood |
Year | 1930 |
Medium | Oil on pressed board |
Dimensions | 26.75 in × 23 in (679 mm × 580 mm) |
Location | Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska |
Arnold Comes of Age (originally Portrait of Arnold Pyle) is a 1930 oil painting by the American regionalist painter Grant Wood, created as a birthday gift for his studio assistant, Arnold Pyle. Wood took Pyle on as his protégé and was deeply affectionate towards him. The painting depicts a figure looking ahead in a rural landscape, as two nude men bathe in a river. It is reminiscent of Italian Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca's work, in particular The Resurrection, and it is interpreted as homoerotic from its detailing.
Grant Wood was a regionalist painter from Iowa. During the Great Depression, he became one of the more prominent regionalists of the country. [1] Arnold Comes of Age was completed in 1930 in celebration of the twenty-first birthday of his studio assistant, Arnold Pyle. [2] Pyle, a painter himself and protégé of Wood, won blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair for his art depicting the Midwest in 1933, and the grand prize in 1936. [3] He was heterosexual, and despite the affection that Wood showed him, did not romantically reciprocate—as Wood had done with many of his assistants, he disguised his outward affection as paternal love. [4]
The painting was originally entitled Portrait of Arnold Pyle. [5] It depicts an awkward young man looking at the viewer as a butterfly lands on his shirt, set in a countryside while two men bathe in a nearby river. [6] It is made of oil and is displayed on pressed board. [2] Its dimensions are 26.75 inches (67.9 cm) tall by 23 inches (58 cm) across. [2]
The art critic Luciano Cheles says that many of Wood's paintings—including his famous American Gothic—were inspired by works produced during the Italian Renaissance, especially those of the fifteenth-century artist Piero della Francesca. [1] Arnold Comes of Age may have been inspired by his painting The Resurrection, as the paintings share several similarities. [7] In both paintings, the central profile is "neatly" set apart from the background, looking at the viewer with a serious gaze; a figure with a distant look was a typical element of della Francesca's art. [7] The paintings also have two trees framing them: in Wood, one young and one mature, and in della Francesca, one bare and one full of leaves. [8] For Cheles, these contrasting trees represent life and death, as well as a general transition between two states. [9] Della Francesca also painted The Baptism of Christ, and Cheles argues that the nude bathers in Wood's painting are similar to that work. [9] These bathers may symbolize baptism, and consequently, one coming of age. [9]
Ulysses Grant Dietz, a former curator of The Newark Museum of Art, said that the painting indicates an "obvious love" for Arnold. [10] Details such as recurrent couplings (of trees, bushes, and stacks of hay) may demonstrate a love for Pyle, and the two nude swimmers in the back could represent the Christian figures Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. [4] Wood chose to sign his name beside Pyle's beltbuckle—adorned with AP, for Arnold Pyle—perhaps so the two men could have their names forever linked. [4] Arnold Comes of Age also depicts a butterfly—which was understood at the time as a gay symbol—landing on Arnold's shirt. [11] The painting is thought to be homoerotic, [12] although critic Faye Hirsch says this interpretation allows researchers to make claims about Wood's life with only minimal evidence. [13]
After Arnold Comes of Age was completed, Wood entered it into the 1930, Iowa State Fair Art Salon. [5] Wood was well-established at the time and had earlier exhibited at galleries in Paris. [5] However, as a regionalist committed to promoting the artistic movement, he decided to show Arnold Comes of Age and other paintings in Iowa instead. [5] Arnold Comes of Age won the grand prize, and his painting Stone City, Iowa won the landscape category. [5]
Arnold Comes of Age was displayed in a 1940 Nebraskan show alongside Stone City, Iowa and John B. Turner, Pioneer, [14] a portrait of the father of his patron David Turner that Wood completed in 1929–30. [15] These were all offered for sale, each at a price of between $300 and $400. [14] The board of trustees for the Nebraska Art Association paid $300 for Arnold Comes of Age, while the Joslyn Art Museum of Omaha acquired Stone City, Iowa. [14] It has since become one of the most valuable pieces within the Association's permanent collection, [14] and resides at the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Nebraska. [16] The Sheldon Museum of Art holds the artwork of the association, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and other collections. [17]
For years, it was not shown publicly due to its significant deterioration: discoloration, extensive craquelure, and varnish disappearance plagued the painting. [18] The bathing figures were, according to Donald Bartlett Doe of the Sheldon, "nearly obliterated". [18] These problems began some ten years after its completion, but by 1985, they were addressed through restoration. [18]