Detail of The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Grant Wood in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2009

Artist: Grant Wood (American, 1892–1942)

Title: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Date: 1931

Medium: Oil on Masonite

Dimensions: H. 30, W. 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1950

Accession Number: 50.117

Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Grant Wood/Licensed VAGA, New York, NY

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/modern...

and

As a leading Regionalist painter during the 1930s and 1940s (along with Thomas Hart Benton and John Steurat Curry), Wood celebrated traditional American values through his depictions of the American landscape, history, and country life. His painting style– influenced by his study of German Neue Sachlickeit (New Objectivity) and Flemish portraits– was deliberately naive and folksy, in contrast to the prevailing trends toward modernism and abstraction. This bird's-eye view shows a New England town on the historic night of April 18, 1775– the start of the Revolutionary War. Paul Revere on his horse (lower left) can be seen riding out to warn the colonists of the approach of the British.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.