Daughters of Revolution

Daughters of Revolution is a painting by American artist Grant Wood. You probably know his most famous work, American Gothic, but this painting is very different.

Wood painted Daughters of Revolution in reaction to a conflict with the Daughters of the American Revolution. It is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' struggle for independence. They work to promote historic preservation, education, and patriotism.

In the late 1920s Wood had been commissioned to make a stained glass window for the Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Because he was not happy with the quality of glass available to him in the United States, he obtained the glass from Germany. When the local branch of the DAR heard about the German glass, their protests kept the work from being dedicated until many years after Wood’s death. They complained about the use of a German material source for a World War I memorial, as Germany was an enemy of the US in that war.

Five years later Wood painted Daughters of Revolution, which he described as his only satire. The painting shows three daughters. One looks suspiciously like George Washington and another like Benjamin Franklin, posing in front of the famous patriotic painting—Washington Crossing the Delaware. The painting was made by German American artist Emmanuel Leutze, who painted it in Germany using the Rhine as a stand in for the Delaware. One daughter is wearing pearl earrings (from the Orient), another is holding a teacup (made in England using a Chinese design), and the other is wearing a collar made of fine lace (probably Belgian?).

Wood subjects look like anti-revolutionaries. What revolutionary can be in three little old ladies sitting around in their nice clothes drinking tea and talking about their glorious ancestors?

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