Interpretation of American Gothic by Grant Wood

American Gothic is regarded as one of the greatest 20th-century

paintings. As Grant Wood was a great regionalist painter, the picture
is a great representation of this detailed, polished and realistic style.
American Gothic is truly Wood’s masterpiece and is ranked as one of
the finest portrait paintings.

The picture depicts, what we may think at first sight, a married,

unhappy couple. A middle-aged woman frowns and furrows her
brows in resignation. She has a cold face while her gaze is turned to
something outside the frame. The man, seemingly a farmer, has his
lips clenched as he stares at us without much emotion. He holds a
pitchfork tightly at the level of his chest and stands next to the
woman. The two of them are actually not in any type of relationship,
they did not even pose together, which explains the lack of warmth
or chemistry between them. The people in American Gothic are the
artist’s 32-year-old sister and town’s local dentist. At first, Wood
intended to use his mother, Hattie, as a model but he realized it
might be too exhausting for her to stand in one position. Though, he
borrowed his mother’s apron and cameo pin for his sister. Why
would Wood paint such a portrait of unrelated people?

In the background, we can see a little white cottage with a

"Carpenter Gothic" window on the second floor. It was an
architectural style, which was popular in the 1890s. The artist painted
it based on a building he saw in the town of Eldon. Everything in the
picture is very detailed beside the trees behind the farmhouse.

Many art critics in the past had thought the picture was a satiric
commentary and ridiculed the life of simple people from small towns.
It has gained so much recognition with the controversy it brought.
Being published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, the portrait angered the
Iowans, who thought to be depicted as “pinched, grim-faced,
puritanical Bible-thumpers”. Wood opposed that saying the painting
was meant to be an appreciation of them, not a caricature. At first,
even writers like Gertrude Stein and Christopher Morley were sure
that American Gothic satirized the provincialism of small-town
America. Although with the beginning of the Great Depression, the
portrait became the symbol of celebration of honest values and
morals, giving hope to immersed in sadness people. Today the
portrait has been the most parodied American artwork and it is a
significant part of pop culture in America.