Grant Wood (1891–1942) was an American painter best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly American Gothic (1930), which has become an iconic example of 20th century American art. Wood was born in rural Iowa and received his art training at the Art Institute of Chicago before making several trips to Europe to study Impressionism and post-Impressionism. He always returned to Iowa, however, and had a studio at the house he shared with his mother in Cedar Rapids. He was a major proponent of the art movement known as American Regionalism which arose in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression, and incorporated paintings, murals, lithographs, and illustrations depicting realistic scenes of rural and small-town America.

It was while driving around the town of Eldon, Iowa, looking for inspiration, that Wood spotted the Dibble House, a quaint small white frame house and considered it just right for his purposes. So why “American Gothic”? Well, the house is built in the so-called Carpenter Gothic style, an architectural style borrowing ideas from Gothic architecture but rendering it in wood. Here’s the Dibble House below, with its arched Gothic style window clearly shown.

Wood wanted to add figures of people he fancied should live in that house: a farmer and his daughter. He chose for his models his sister Nan Wood Graham and their dentist Dr Byron McKeeby. The woman is dressed in a colonial print apron while the man is adorned in overalls covered by a suit jacket and carries a pitchfork. It’s an odd blend, and some took it initially as a mockery of “the kind of people” who might live in such a house, but this was far from the intent of the artist who wished to simply create an authentic depiction of real people in his home state.

American Gothic became one of the most familiar images of American art and has been widely parodied in American popular culture. Exuberant it ain’t, but it somehow captures a steadfast spirit befitting of the context in which it was painted.