Grant wood is known for his stylized and subtly humorous scenes of rural people iowa cornfields and mythic subjects from american history such as the art institute s iconic painting american gothic 1930.
American gothic painting grant wood 1930.
He sketched out the house on an envelope determined to use it as a backdrop in what would become his most famous painting.
The models on the painting were wood s sister nan wearing a colonial print apron mimicking 19th century americana and wood s dentist dr.
It depicts presumably a farming couple either married or a father and daughter standing in front of their frame house with a large gothic window.
For the american politician with a similar name see grant woods.
Grant devolson wood february 13 1891 february 12 1942 was an american painter best known for his paintings depicting the rural american midwest particularly american gothic 1930 which has become an iconic painting of the 20th century.
In 1930 grant wood submitted his painting american gothic to a show at the art institute of chicago.
Readers were outraged by wood s portrayal of them as grim faced puritans.
He 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.
The two people living in their sturdy well crafted wooden house armed with their down to earth qualities of resilience fortitude and pride represent those who are most likely to overcome the hardship of the 1930s.
Wood painted the house along with the people he imagined might live there.
The models for the couple were grant wood s dentist and his younger sister nan.
Along with other midwestern regionalist painters like john steuart curry and thomas hart benton wood advocated for a realistic style and recognizable subjects that showed local places and common people a radically different approach from european modernism and its push toward.
Shown is a farmer and his spinster daughter in front of their house.
In august 1930 grant wood an american painter with european training was driven around eldon iowa by a young painter from eldon john sharp.
It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter often mistakenly assumed to be his wife.
Byron mckeeby from iowa.
But in fact wood created american gothic as an affirmative statement about traditional american values.
As an act of reassurance just as the great depression was beginning to bite.
American gothic is a painting by american artist grant wood in 1930.
Visiting eldon iowa in the summer of 1930 the artist was struck by a little white cottage with a single oversized window created in a style known as carpenter gothic.