- [Steven] We're in the Amon Carter Museum
Of American Art looking at one of my favorite
paintings by the American artist, Grand Wood.
This is Parson Weems' Fable, most Americans looking
at this painting in 1939 would have been familiar
with Parson Weems, and with the fable of Washington.
But modern audiences, I think are less familiar
and that was one of the motivations of the artist,
he wanted to reassert what he thought was an
important piece of American mythology.
- Mason Lock Weems in his fifth edition
on his biography on George Washington,
incorporated the famous folklore of George
Washington.
- [Steven] So the story was that Washington
as a boy, was on his fathers farm and took a hatchet,
and cut down one of his cherry trees.
His father confronted him and said 'Do you know
who did this?' And Washington's famous response,
according to Weems, was, 'I cannot tell a lie, Pa.'
- In the Weems' version the father is so grateful
that his son has confessed that he applauds him
for his truthfulness and is not angry but forgiving.
- [Steven] So there really are two moral
aspects to this story. One is the importance
of truth telling especially for the first
Presidents of the United States for the general,
who is credited with winning the revolutionary war,
but the other is the forgiveness
of the paternal figure
- And in Wood's version the father is
actually not forgiving, he's stern,
he grips the cherry tree with so much force
you see the blood in his hand.
- [Steven] It's important to understand that this
was painted in 1939 this was the beginning
of the Second World War and a conversation
was taking place in the United States,
as we were witnessing the rise of fascism
across Europe but even fascist tendencies here.
This is the very end of The Great Depression,
this is in the mid-west just a few years after
the dust bowl had taken place
and so you had a county that was seeking
it's roots, it's moral foundation.
- Wood felt that American folklore was something
that Americans could celebrate
at this time of trauma.
- [Steven] Everything in this painting
is systematized, everything is a kind of visual fable.
The cherry tree is not a real cherry tree,
it is a perfected cherry tree, it's a stage prop
in a certain way and in fact the entire painting
opens up to us as a kind of stage.
We see Parson Weems in his green jacket,
the largest figure in the painting,
lifting back a curtain.
- Wood with his love of theatricality,
wanted viewers to part-take in his paintings.
And by drawing back the curtain,
by Parson Weems pointing directly to the fable,
being portrayed like a play that's being performed,
it invites the viewer in a very direct manner.
And Wood had a deep history in theater,
he started in the 1920's, he organized the
community players in Cedar Rapids,
Wood was responsible for all the set construction
and you see his knowledge of set construction
and also that falsehood of set construction.
Coming through in this painting,
not only in the organization of the trees,
looking like props, but also the lighting,
a very focused spotlight hits on the story
of Washington and his father.
- [Steven] One of my favorite aspects
of this painting is the young Washington,
with the mature head that we know
from the dollar bill that comes from a portrait
by Gilbert Stuart.
- By using Gilbert Stuart's famous portrait head
of Washington, he said 'it provided a means for
his audience' to immediately recognize Washington.
Which it did, but I think it also
is a reflection of Wood's humor.
- [Steven] This is a completely theatrical invention,
this is a construction of American identity.
It's a construction of American memory.
- And it's Wood conflating the ideas of theater
with painting to help viewers to participate.
- [Steven] Now Wood was one of a triumvirate
of artists that were well known as Regionalists.
These were artist that although versed in European
traditions decided to focus their art,
their subject matter on the heartland of America.
Wood left the East Coast, he went back to Iowa,
and he put down roots there but declaring
his separation from the European tradition.
- Regionalism reached its high in the early 30's,
and at that moment the idea was looking at the
heartland in a way to restore faith in America.
- [Steven] Parson Weems, Washington's father
and of course the young Washington,
are in the foreground but there are
additional figures in this painting.
At the left edge there are two African Americans
who can been seen harvesting cherries.
And If we look in the extreme background,
we can just make out the red and white
of the clothing worn by somebody else harvesting,
and so we have a sense of the productivity
of these trees but we're also reminded of the fact
that Washington's father owned and slaved people.
And that we have a reference to the complex
history of early America and it's reliance
on enslaved labor.
- I think he's also portaying at this moment,
in '39, with The Depression, this idea of productivity.
That just seems to reach to the skies,
in this almost positive, optimistic outlook.
It's a fascinating contradiction with the sky
above which is so dark and ominous.
- [Steven] In fact some art historians have noted
the storm clouds that are gathering as an
illusion to the coming of war.
Washington had, late in his career cautioned against
American entanglements with European powers
and that's an issue that must have felt important
in the 1930's when the First World War,
was still a recent memory and the United States
was now again contemplating involvement in Europe.
And Washington was wildly popular
when he left office, he could have seized
permanent power but he chose to step down
and he set a model for the peaceful transition
of power and such contrast to the seizing of power
by dictators in Europe at this time.
- Wood at this moment in 1939,
is looking at the facts of history,
the facts of Washington and his important role,
but also the myth that became associated with him
of telling the truth, so there's this mixture
of fact and fiction, of myth and folklore
that Wood has so beautifully brought together
at this time of deep conflict and tension
between modernity, history and tradition.