American Gothic, Grant Wood’s most famous painting, depicts a stern farmer (with a pitchfork) with his rather morose daughter (in an apron with a cameo pin). The backdrop features a house, which still stands near Eldon, Iowa, with an upstairs Gothic window. I think its fame comes from being so easily parodied, even by my grandparents.
The painting, first exhibited on October 30, 1930, is owned by The Art Institute of Chicago.
When our son was small, we could use our library card to check out framed copies of well-known artwork. One of them was American Gothic. Dan’s surprising question was captured by Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart, in her The Front Row column in The Des Moines Tribune, November 19, 1979:
In West Des Moines, while she was showing a copy of “American Gothic” to her 5-year-old son Dan, Mrs. Guy Kidney said Grant Wood had used his dentist as the model for the farmer.
Dan kept staring.
Then he pointed to the pitchfork.
“Is that a dentists’ tool?” he asked.
Oh, Dan — what have they been doing to you?
We drove to Chicago in 1982 and got to see American Gothic in its Art Institute home. We also enjoyed the Shedd Aquarium and two museums: The Field Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Science and Industry.
Tom Isenhart, cousin Susan’s husband, took this photo of our grandparents, Ruby and Kenneth Neal, at their farm northeast of Dexter, Iowa. Tom had been discharged from the Navy and was finishing his degree at the University of Iowa. One of his undergrad classes was a photography course. When they were back visiting relatives, Grandpa told about their centennial clothes. Tom decided to take the photo for a class project and posed them for it. Grandpa was always happy to mug for a camera. Tom had a bunch of billfold sized prints done. Grandpa handed them out!
Here’s an earlier blog post about Wood’s painting called Dinner for Threshers.
I featured a couple of books about Grant Wood a few years ago as well.
It’s no wonder that American Gothic is probably the only Grant Wood painting most people know about!