American Gothic

This article is about the painting. For other uses, see American Gothic (disambiguation).
American Gothic
A painting of a man and woman with stern expessions standing side-by-side in front of a white house. The man holds a pitch fork.
ArtistGrant Wood
Year1930
TypeOil on beaverboard
Dimensions78 cm × 65.3 cm (30+3⁄4 in × 25+3⁄4 in)
LocationArt Institute of Chicago, Chicago

American Gothic is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. A character study of a man and a woman portrayed in front of a home, American Gothic is one of the most famous American paintings of the 20th century, and has been widely parodied in American popular culture.[1][2]

Wood was inspired to paint what is now known as the American Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of people [he] fancied should live in that house". It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter – often mistakenly assumed to be his wife.[1][3]

The figures were modeled by Wood's sister Nan Wood Graham and their dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby. The woman is dressed in a colonial print apron evoking 20th-century rural Americana while the man is adorned in overalls covered by a suit jacket and carries a pitchfork. The plants on the porch of the house are mother-in-law's tongue and beefsteak begonia, which also appear in Wood's 1929 portrait of his mother, Woman with Plants.[4]

From 2016 to 2017, the painting was displayed in Paris at the Musée de l'Orangerie and in London at the Royal Academy of Arts, in its first showings outside the United States.[5][6][7]

  1. ^ a b Fineman, Mia (June 8, 2005). "The Most Famous Farm Couple in the World: Why American Gothic still fascinates". Slate.
  2. ^ Güner, Fisun (February 8, 2017). "How American Gothic became an icon". BBC. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  3. ^ "About This Artwork: American Gothic". The Art Institute of Chicago. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
  4. ^ "The Painting". American Gothic House. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  5. ^ Cumming, Laura (February 5, 2017). "American Gothic: a state visit to Britain for the first couple". The Guardian. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  6. ^ "American Painting in the 1930s: Musée de l'Orangerie". musee-orangerie.fr. Archived from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  7. ^ Artwork 6565 Art Institute of Chicago