American Gothic: Who Are the Two Figures in Grant Wood's Painting?
They are not husband and wife, the models were the artist's sister and his dentist, and the house still stands in a small town in Iowa. The facts behind one of America's most parodied images.
Grant WoodPublic domain
Grant Wood painted American Gothic in 1930, and it has been copied and parodied ever since. Much of what people assume about the two figures is not what Wood said about them.
A painting from 1930
Grant Wood painted American Gothic in 1930 in oil on beaverboard; it measures 78 × 65.3 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago acquired it the same year, after it was shown in the museum's 43rd annual exhibition of American paintings and sculpture.1
A farmer and his daughter
The museum describes the pair as a farmer and his daughter standing in front of their house.1 Wood used his sister, Nan Wood Graham, and his dentist, Byron McKeeby, as models, and the painting won a bronze medal and a prize of 300 dollars.2
The house in Eldon
The house behind them is a real building in Eldon, Iowa, in the Carpenter Gothic style, a rural version of the Gothic Revival; its pointed upper window gave the painting its name.1
Satire or tribute?
From the start, viewers argued about whether Wood was mocking small-town Midwesterners or honouring them.2
Our video, in English, looks closely at the figures, the house and the details.
Sources
- 1Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930 (1930.934). The Art Institute of Chicago
- 2American Gothic. Wikipedia
