Images
Grant Wood, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931
Objectives
Students will understand that artists and writers depicting events from the past make deliberate choices about what facts to include or not, and how accurate to make their creations based upon the purposes they want their pieces to serve.
Focusing Statement
Students will examine Grant Wood’s painting, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” for hints about the story depicted in the painting. They will then glean more of the story from excerpts of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”. In addition, students will discuss why the artist might have chosen to make the scene appear dreamlike and they will examine discrepancies between what really happened during Revere’s ride and what the poem and painting illustrate.
Examining Expressive Content
Teacher: First show students the painting, without the title and then ask:
- What do you see?
- Where do you look first on this painting? Why? What did the artist do to make you want to look there first?
- Where is the action happening? What did the artist do to draw your eye to those spots?
- What are the humans doing?
- What ties the scene together and helps your eye to see all parts of the picture?
There’s a story happening in this picture and we’ll be finding out more about it.
- Does the story take place during the day or at night? What did the artist do to let you know that?
- Did the story take place a long time ago or in modern times? How can you tell?
- What do you think is going on? Why might the rider be going through town so fast? How do you know that he is riding fast?
- What else would you like to know?
An artist named Grant Wood painted this picture in the 1930s, remembering a story that happened a long time ago. Even though the story is true, the artist wanted it to seem like a dream.
- What looks real? What doesn’t look very real? What did Mr. Wood do to make the picture look that way?