About This Artwork
Grant Wood
American, 1891-1942
The Pump1937
Black crayon, with touches of graphite, on cream wove card
137 x 106 mm
Mr. and Mrs. Carter Manny Jr. gift in honor of Ada Barnes Manny & Sara Sherman Wood, 1983.868
Prints and Drawings
Not on Display
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.