Famous Art 21

American Gothic ; 1930 ; Grant Wood

American Gothic is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood was inspired to paint what is now known as the "American Gothic House" in Eldon, Iowa, along with "the kind of people Wood fancied should live in that house.” It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter—often mistakenly assumed to be his wife. The painting's name is a word play on the house's architectural style, Carpenter Gothic.

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 his mother-in-law's tongue and beefsteak begonia, which also appear in Wood's 1929 portrait of his mother, Woman with Plants.

American Gothic is one of the most familiar images of 20th Century American art and has been widely parodied in American popular culture. From 2016-2017 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.