Painted in 1926—four years and many stylistic phases before American Gothic—Grant Wood’s Corn Room Mural comprises seven panels that seem to emit a golden light. Before arriving at this glowing moment, however, the painting was nearly extinguished.
In 1979, Leah Hartman interviewed Carl Eybers for the Siouxland Oral History Program. After telling a story about his first car, Eybers’s took an unexpected turn:
“I think it was sometime in the 1920s, late 1920s, I think, or it might have been the early 1930s, Eppley he owned the Martin Hotel, hired Grant Wood. You’ve heard of Grant Wood from Cedar Rapids, the artist. Hired Grant Wood to paint the ballroom in the Martin Hotel.”
Before arriving, Wood hired local painters—including Eybers—to prepare the room with an undercoat. When Wood arrived, he mixed a glaze and directed Eybers to apply it:
“And he painted that whole room. It was like a big corn field, all the way around, just a corn … without putting on a brush full of paint. He used his thumb with a rag most of the time and a dry brush, and you know, he would just give a few swipes on this glaze that I had coated in, and then there was a rabbit sitting there, or he give a few streaks up and down, and take a dry brush, and he had a cornstalk. He was fantastic, really. I think that, in all the years that I’ve been painting, I think that was the most interesting experience that I had as a painter. And at that time, he wasn’t as famous as he later became. But he was a fantastic painter really.”
Over time, the painting became dirty, and the powers that be at the Martin Hotel ordered it painted over. Until this conversation between Hartman and Eybers, knowledge of the work had nearly been lost.
This is the first installment of Wood Music on Siouxland Public Media, a project in which musicians interpret Grant Wood’s Corn Room Mural.
Special thanks to the Sioux City Public Museum for preserving the Hartman-Eybers oral history and allowing us to use it. Thanks also to the Sioux City Art Center.
