Sentimental Yearner

1936 · Drawing

May one see it?

Not receiving at present

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Minneapolis, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked: 3 days ago
In this state since: Sep 25, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the work

This is one of nine drawings Grant Wood produced for the deluxe illustrated edition of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street (1920, 1937). While Lewis was harshly satiric in his portrayal of the residents of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, Wood interpreted them good-naturedly, drawing on his own experience of the types he knew in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he lived. Wood’s model for the sappy Sentimental Yearner in this drawing was his friend Charles Sanders, a journalism professor at the University of Iowa. Wood conceived of the character as a painfully earnest fop. He’s so sensitive, he can be transported by a tiny carnation, a detail of Wood’s own devising. Though the character is dressed like a diplomat, his ensemble, including the comically dainty bow tie, may well have come from the pages of the Sears Roebuck catalogue, a favorite resource of Wood’s.

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Particulars

Accession number: 80.91

In the catalog

Drawings & watercolors Graphite Modernism 20th century United States

Sources

Minneapolis Institute of Art
Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — © Minneapolis Institute of Art

Meanwhile, in the life of Grant Wood

The whole life

1924–1935
“5 Turner Alley”: a studio in a carriage-house hayloft
From 1924 to 1935 Wood lived with his mother in the hayloft of a carriage house in Cedar Rapids that he had converted into his personal studio; it had no address until Wood made one up: “5 Turner Alley”.
1930s
Helps Curry and Benton return to the Midwest
John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton, who with Wood are the artists most associated with Regionalism, returned to the Midwest thanks to his encouragement; he helped them find teaching positions at colleges, Curry in Wisconsin and Benton in Missouri.
1934
Director of a New Deal PWAP project in Iowa City
In 1934 Wood was offered a position working and teaching in Iowa City as director of a New Deal Public Works of Art Project; there he assisted other artists and art students in producing a set of murals for Iowa State University in Ames.
1934
The University of Iowa offers him a three-year post
Once his PWAP project ended, the University of Iowa offered Wood a three-year term as Associate Professor of Fine Art; he taught painting at the university’s School of Art until 1941.
1934–1941
A colleague, Lester Longman, tries to get Wood fired
Wood was a closeted homosexual, and a colleague at the university, Lester Longman, made an unsuccessful attempt to have him fired on explicit moral grounds and for his advocacy of regionalism. The university administration dismissed the allegations.
1934–1941
Mentor to students, among them Elizabeth Catlett
At the university Wood supervised mural-painting projects, mentored students including Elizabeth Catlett, produced works of his own and became a key part of the university’s cultural community.