This painting shows a farmer and his daughter standing before their cottage. This painting has been contested, parodied, and puzzled over for years. For many, this painting depicts the American midwestern values, while others see it as a satirical comment on the character of small town American life. The paintings inspiration stems from wooden farm house featuring a single carpenter gothic window that Wood came across during a visit to the small town Eldon in his home state of Iowa. Wood stated he wanted to paint American Gothic people with their faces stretched out long to go with the American Gothic House. To do so, Wood recruited his dentist and his sister to be the models for the painting. Wood made sure to elongate the womans face so she wouldn’t be mistaken for the wife of the dentist. The elongation of the faces shows the influence of flemish renaissance art that Wood studied during his travels in Europe. Looking at the man’s face in particular, you can see every wrinkle, every crease, and even every individual eyebrow hairs. You can also notice, on the woman, the way the light catches the delicate curl of the woman’s hair that has come loose from her bun. There are also noticeable reoccuring forms in the painting that tie the whole composition together. The vertical lines of the hay fork are echoed in the mans shirt and also in the panels of the house. The decorative pattern on the woman’s apron echoes the curtains in the gothic window. Wood painted this in 1930 when America was going through a rapid change. Rural life in America was becomming less common as the majority of the population was moving to big urban cities. After traveling through Europe and returning home to Iowa, Wood became more appreciative of rural life Midwestern values, thus becoming the inspiration for this painting.
