American Gothic

Grant Wood painted American Gothic in 1930, in his studio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was 39, a regional painter with a modest reputation, and this painting made him famous overnight. It won a bronze medal at the Art Institute of Chicago's annual exhibition that year and was purchased by the museum for 300 dollars. It has been there ever since, and it is one of the most recognized paintings in American art. A farmer and his daughter stand in front of a white clapboard house with a Gothic window in the gable. The farmer holds a pitchfork, his face stern, his overalls clean. The daughter stands beside him, her face equally stern, her hair pulled back, her collar buttoned to the neck. Both look directly at the viewer. The house behind them is small and neat, with the Gothic window echoing the shape of the pitchfork tines above the farmer's shoulder. Wood based the painting on a real house in Eldon, Iowa, a small town south of Cedar Rapids. He saw the house while visiting friends and was struck by the incongruity of a Gothic window on a plain farmhouse. He asked his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby, and his sister, Nan Wood Graham, to pose as the farmer and his daughter. They posed separately, and Wood combined them in the painting. The figures are not husband and wife, as many viewers assume, but father and daughter. The painting was controversial from the moment it was exhibited. Some Iowa residents saw it as a satire of rural Midwestern types and were offended. Others saw it as a celebration of pioneer values. Wood himself said he intended it as an affectionate portrait of the kind of people he had grown up with, and he was puzzled by the hostile readings. The ambiguity has never been resolved, and the painting has been read as both satire and tribute for nearly a century. Wood was born in Anamosa, Iowa, in 1891. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and in Paris, but his mature style was based on Northern Renaissance painting, particularly the work of Jan van Eyck. He painted with a precise, detailed technique, building his forms in thin layers of color with no visible brushwork. American Gothic is painted on beaverboard, a kind of fiberboard, because Wood could not afford canvas at the time. Oil on beaverboard, 78 by 65 centimeters, roughly 31 by 26 inches. Wood painted with a smooth, highly finished surface, building the faces in thin layers of color. The pitchfork is rendered with sharp precision, its tines catching the light. The Gothic window in the house is painted with the same attention to detail as the figures. The vertical format and iconic subject make this print work well in a living room, study, or kitchen with traditional or country furniture. The Iowa subject and rural theme suit a room with warm-toned walls. A dark wood frame matches the painting's earthy palette. The 11x14 or 12x16 size gives the faces and the pitchfork enough detail to appreciate up close. The painting is in the Art Institute of Chicago. This is a public domain artwork. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.