The 1931 painting “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by Iowa painter Grant Wood was inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
I first encountered a print of this painting shortly after I joined the U.S. Air force in the early 1970s. I carried a framed copy for decades, and recently bought a replacement.
It reminds me of the roots of my patriotism – the blood sacrifices we’ve given to create our beautiful nation.
Painted from a high bird’s-eye perspective, Wood’s painting features stylized colonial buildings, toy-like geometric trees and rounded, quilted hills that give it a dreamlike, theatrical quality. Wood used a child’s hobby horse as a model for the steed Revere rode in 1775 to warn of British troops’ arrival.
The painting inspired me to study artwork more closely and to collect a range of other prints. While I’ve moved past Wood to favor such painters as Monet, Picasso and the Japanese school, I still find Wood’s agricultural landscapes and, particularly “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” remarkably entrancing and hopeful.
I hope you do too.
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