The stories, symbols and history behind great art
1891–1942
American painter (1891–1942) from Iowa, a leading figure of Regionalism, which focused on rural Midwestern life. He is best known for American Gothic (1930).
Wood was born near Anamosa, Iowa, on 13 February 1891. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1923, and a trip to Germany in 1927 brought him into contact with early Netherlandish painting.1
After American Gothic made him famous in 1930, he taught at the University of Iowa from 1934. He died in Iowa City on 12 February 1942.1
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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.
