Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Shrine Quartet
1939
Grant Wood (1892-1942)
USA: Iowa
Lithograph on paper
sheet: 12"h x 16-1/8"w; mat: 14-1/4"h x 19-1/4"w
Special Acquisitions Fund
84.16

Shrine Quartet, black and white lithograph. Four Shriners wearing fezzes, singing; they stand in front of a backdrop with a scene of pyramids and camels. Signed l.r. : "Grant Wood". In pencil, l.r. on sheet "p518".

In this evocative lithograph artist Grant Wood depicted four members of the Shrine as they sang. Dressed for a meeting, the singers' distinctive fezzes which cast elongated shadows against a background of pyramids and camels. Wood took the first three Masonic degrees at Mt. Hermon Lodge No. 263 in Cedar Rapids in 1921. He is not thought to have joined the Shrine. However, Wood was likely to have been familiar with the group—a Shrine temple met in his hometown. For further information, see blog post, March 27, 2018, http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2018/03/grant-woods-shrine-quartet.html