american gothic essay

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Formal Analysis on American Gothic, Essay Example

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Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930)

This painting is probably America’s most recognizable one, known even to those who do not know its age, locale, title, or name of its painter. Its worldwide fame is on par with that of the Mona Lisa and The Scream. Like those latter two iconic works, American Gothic has been endlessly copied, parodied, and interpreted over the years. Grant himself was ambivalent on what it meant, if anything. Initially some Iowans (the painting’s locale) hated it and Wood both.

Being a portrait, it has an entirely different look from the hyper-rounded, almost cartoonish appearance of Wood’s landscapes, some of which look like they could almost have been done by Thomas Hart Benton in a mellow mood. There is nothing outwardly exaggerated about the farmer and his wife (or daughter — the relationship is unaddressed), nor the house behind them. (However, a photo of the pair in modern dress taken some time after the picture was taken shows that the woman’s face in the painting is much narrower than the actual model’s. The man’s face, by contrast, is virtually a photographic likeness.) The other elements — its composition, line, space, light, color, and overall impression are organized, tight, and terse — and almost entirely a depression-era plains derivative (called Carpenter Gothic) of the Northern Renaissance, particularly the Flemish school. Grant studied that branch extensively during his early trips to Europe, and basing American Gothic on that artistic template necessarily limited his options. But this was not a problem. The arched window at the center of the picture, above and behind the couple, is the inspiration for the entire painting. It provides its focal point and title, the latter because its design is clearly derived from classic European Gothic-era Church windows (Douglas, 2011). There is nothing else remarkable about the building. The window is everything.

Wood saw that window from his car one day, and was struck by it. He thought it somewhat pretentious, yet artistically affecting. Next he thought of who would likely inhabit the house. And these are the three fundamental elements the picture is built from. In other words, it’s a triptych, a Renaissance staple of European art, updated and transplanted with a wry but serious twist to the American Midwest. However, the window is not realistic in the sense of reporting exactly what the painter saw: it’s actually noticeably wider than its painted version. That artistic narrowness is also central to the picture. It is reinforced by the vertical slat-construction showing on both floors of the house and red barn, as well in the subtle but emphatic narrowness of the man and woman. She shows sloping shoulders, flat chest, a long neck, narrow face, and hair pulled back tightly around it. The man’s head is, if anything, even narrower, so much so that it counters the effect of his rectangular shoulders. The final emphasis on narrowness is the weird mirroring of the man’s pitchfork (which itself echoes the triptych) on his bib overall and shirt. All this is obvious, as what it all connotates: the couple were as narrow-minded as their faces.

Whatever more that narrowness was actually meant to convey (if anything), the colors used are another expression of that design and sentiment. The only pronounced ones are dark — either black or brown — and white. I think this harkens back to the Northern Renaissance effect as well, and in this particular painting he achieves a typical supporting effect by putting the darker colors well in front of the contrasting pale blue sky. Some commentators have also noted the corpse-like look of the man. Whether that was deliberate or not, the combined effect of the two dour faces in dark and old fashioned clothing (the woman’s rickrack was already old-fashioned) does lend a funeral sense to the picture; the man’s black coat indicates he is a minister of the local church; the woman looks turned away, as if in grief; and the shaded windows in day was a mourning tradition. But as for their faces, Grant may simply have been mimicking 19 th century photographs, where long exposure required people to stand perfectly still and maintain the same expression — that being the commonly given reason as to why few of the subjects ever smiled. (However, in Wood’s other portraits, almost none of the subjects smile.)

Once Wood saw the window, he had a difficult choice to make: how many people to put in the picture. It seems obvious now, but a look at Grant’s other portraits, both before and after this one, show that he preferred to paint a single person. Woman with Plants (1929) is a close precursor to American Gothic (the woman even wears a cameo), but it is unknown to the public. Having decided on a presumably married couple (and there is no reason to think of them as other than married), next came the choice of how to place the couple — which on the left and the right? If we assume the man to be right-handed, then had he been on the left (looking at the picture), he would have had to hold the pitchfork in his left hand to keep the pitchfork in the center of the picture, which is probably a design imperative. Interestingly, during traditional weddings, the groom is on right (looking at them from behind as they stand facing the minister) in order to keep his right “sword hand” free to fight off enemies (Stritof). In this picture, then, the pitchfork is in the man’s sword hand. Had Grant composed the picture with the man on the left side and holding the pitchfork in his left hand, we may be sure it would be resulted in a good deal of earnest interpretation and endless questions about it.

There has been a good deal of earnest interpretation and endless questions anyway. But that is probably the fate of all great art when it is seen by thousands, then (in modern times) millions. This increases with longevity of relevance. American Gothic has it. This is the central fact of a great work of art: it simply is. No one really knows why . It keeps its secrets from us.

Works Cited

Douglas, Chad. Connect Tristates. Trip to American Gothic House . 2011.Web.

Stritof, Sheri. About.com. Marriage: Groom on the Right, Bride on the Left . 2012. Web.

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Analisis of work “American Gothic” Essay

“American Gothic” is a painting by Grant Wood in 1930. The image is iconic at this stage in American history, depicting the image of a stern-faced man holding a pitchfork and a younger woman both standing in front of a white farmhouse. According to reports, the artist was inspired to create the painting when he saw the farmhouse from the window of a car in his home state of Iowa. “He decided to paint the house – built in the ‘carpenter gothic’ style, which applied the lofty architecture of European cathedrals to flimsy American frame houses – along with ‘the kind of people I fancied should live in that house” (Fineman, 2005).

The image has made significant transitions in the way in which it has been interpreted over the years, largely due to the way in which people have approached it. Although the picture is widely considered to be the picture of the ultimate example of a Midwestern farmer and his wife, there are conflicting reports that Wood intended to represent a farmer and his wife. While Fineman suggests that this interpretation was offered by Wood’s sister Nan, who posed for the female character and was perhaps embarrassed by the prospect that she would be married to a man obviously so much older than she, the true nature of this relationship is actually not as important as the individual viewer’s interpretation.

Although we may be told what a particular painting is supposed to mean, ultimately, it is up to the individual to determine what the piece means to them in particular. As John Armstrong says, “however crowded the gallery, an encounter with a work of art is always something we pursue alone – no one else can make the work matter to us. When contemplating a work of art, one of the key questions ought to be ‘what is this to me?” (Armstrong, 2000: 4-5).

The reception of this piece of art illustrates the degree of difference in perspectives a different set of eyes can introduce to the work. According to Fineman (2005), Wood entered the painting in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago where most of the judges considered it trivial and meaningless, but one patron of the museum saw something more important. It was thanks to this patron that the work received the bronze award along with a small cash prize and that the museum acquired the piece itself. When images of the painting finally reached Iowa, the response was largely negative as Wood’s fellow Iowans were dismayed at the way in which he portrayed them, as if they were always “grim-faced, puritanical Bible-thumpers” (Fineman, 2005).

More sophisticated assessments of the painting held that it was a brilliant satire of the “rigidity of American rural or small-town life” (Fineman, 2005). Wood himself carefully fostered new ways of thinking about the painting as it became more emblematic of “American virtue and the pioneer spirit” (Fineman, 2005). Looking at the painting, all of these various interpretations are certainly justifiable and, when one is looking at the painting with these ideas in mind, it is possible to trace their origins.

However, none of these interpretations convey any true meaning to the individual unless one considers what the painting means to them. For me, the painting is representative of the restrictive ways of life of the past as fathers stood jealous guard over their daughters, often to the daughter’s detriment. While attempting to view the image as one of a farmer and his wife, I noticed that the eyes of the younger woman are looking in the direction of the man but seem to see well beyond him, as if she longed to be able to explore what she might find beyond the trees, which are hinted at in the background.

Although she is dressed very conservatively, a wisp of hair falling from her bun and the sad, slightly cross look on her face indicates to me a sense of wishing she had more options in her attire and self-expression. They are obviously posing for a picture, as seen in the man’s direct gaze at the painter, but the woman stays distracted, a step behind the man and seeming as if she would run if she thought she had a chance.

This chance is removed from her by the barbed points of the man’s pitchfork which are repeated throughout the painting as if the girl is surrounded by pitchforks that threaten harm if she steps outside her bounds. At the same time, they ensure no one enters the space the man has defined as his territory, including the space of the woman’s social world. Whether she is daughter or wife, therefore, makes very little difference. Either way, she is trapped in a world not necessarily of her own choosing and obviously longs for something else.

While a number of interpretations have been offered on this image in a variety of ways and in numerous different social periods, these can only help to inform a personal opinion about the painting rather than take the place of this personal opinion. Painting means nothing if it does not mean something to the individual viewing the piece and this requires a close examination of the image in order to fully appreciate it.

While it has been argued that the woman is the daughter rather than the wife of the farmer, in my personal exploration of the piece, I have determined that her status really doesn’t matter to the meaning of the piece. Instead, to me, the image depicts the rigid social constraints women often found themselves in even in the early 1900s. Despite living in the free world, these women were not free, often living behind metaphorical pitchforks that governed their actions, their dress and their behavior, but could not control their inner desires or dreams.

Works Cited

Armstrong, John. Move Closer: An Intimate Philosophy of Art. New York: Farrar, Straus Girous, 2000.

Fineman, Mia. “The Most Famous Farm Couple in the World.” Slate. (2005). Web.

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American Gothic Meaning: Grant Wood Painting Interpretation & Analysis

By k shabi updated 18 oct 2021     published 24 dec 2014.

Painted in 1930, Grant Wood’s American Gothic is one of the most famous pieces of American art and is still widely parodied in popular culture today. What is the hidden meaning of the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood? There is more to American Gothic than first meets the eye. Read a critique, interpretation and analysis explaining the meaning and story behind this famous 20th century American painting.

Grant Wood's American Gothic : Where was it Painted?

Grant Wood’s American Gothic is a deceptively simple painting. At first glance, American Gothic seems to be just a portrait of a local couple standing in front of their little white house, almost as if posing for a photograph. But, upon closer inspection, American Gothic isn’t exactly a Norman Rockwell painting.

In many ways, American Gothic was a very personal painting for Grant Wood. An artist born in rural Iowa, Wood played a key role in the Regionalism art movement and is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. Planning to enter an art exhibition in Chicago and in search of local subject matter, it was a little house not far from his home in Eldon, Iowa that inspired Grant Wood to paint American Gothic in 1930.

Though mostly obscured by the curious couple standing in front of it, the house in the background of American Gothic plays an important role in understanding the true meaning of the painting. After all, it was this house that initially inspired Wood to paint this scene in the first place. According to Wood, he was first attracted to the house because of its quaint architectural style: American Gothic, from which the title of the painting derives. Also referred to as Carpenter Gothic or Rural Gothic, this affordable, light-frame style of home became popular in America in the late nineteenth century. With distinctive Gothic elements like pointed arches and steep gables, Carpenter Gothic houses were meant to evoke the grand flourishes of classic European architecture, but at a price the working class American family could still afford.

An Interpretation of American Gothic: Satire & Architecture

What was it about this Carpenter Gothic home that inspired Grant Wood? Also known as The Dibble House, the little white house in American Gothic boasts a large Gothic-style window in its upstairs. While the rest of the house is mostly obscured, the Gothic window is a focal point of the painting, drawing the eye up and over the couple. Darrell Garwood, Wood’s biographer, claims that it was this window in particular that initially caught the artist’s eye and inspired him to paint American Gothic . According to Garwood, Wood found the Gothic window to be “a form of borrowed pretentiousness,” especially in a “flimsy frame house” such as this. For Wood, this American Gothic house was the perfect subject for satire.

In American Gothic , artist Grant Wood uses the house to paint a satire of small town American life. In Wood’s opinion, Carpenter Gothic homes were a “structural absurdity.” It seemed almost offensive to him to see the grandiosity of real Gothic architecture somewhat vulgarly reduced into the cutesy “cardboardy frame houses” increasingly popular in Eldon and other parts of the Midwest. Though this style of construction was obviously a primarily economical and practical choice for the typical Midwestern American family, Wood takes issue with its lack of authenticity. To him, this style of home is trying to be more dignified, historical and cultured than it really is.

Regionalism, Nationalism and Isolationism in American Gothic

There is no doubt that Grant Wood did not like to see European influencing the architecture of small town America. This rebellion against European influences can also be seen in the American Regionalism movement as a whole. While Europe had dominated the arts for centuries and spawned countless art movements and schools of thought, Regionalism was a very American art movement that began in the 1930s. The negative effects of the Great Depression and World War I contributed to pushing public opinion and policy in America increasingly toward nationalism and isolationism. Responding to this, American scene painters like Wood were growing more interested in using their art to depict realistic, down-to-earth scenes and images from their own lives and culture in rural and small-town America.

Analysis: Who Are the People in American Gothic ?

A good example of Regionalist art, American Gothic is a realistic portrait of small town Anerican life in the 1930s. Who is the couple in American Gothic ? When asked about the couple posing in front of the home, Grant Wood famously declared them "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house.” Like Wood, the man and woman in the painting also hail from rural Iowa, but their relationship is not what it first seems. Is there more than meets the eye in American Gothic ?

Many people assume that the couple in American Gothic are husband and wife. In 1941, Wood revealed that he envisioned that the couple in his painting were actually a father and his “grown-up” spinster daughter. In reality, the man and woman in American Gothic have no real relationship to each other at all, but just served as models for the artist. The woman in the painting is Grant Wood’s sister, Nan Wood Graham. The man in the painting is Dr. Byron McKeeby, their family dentist. The palpable lack of warmth or intimacy in American Gothic is real. Graham and McKeeby never physically posed or sat together, but were painted on separate occasions by Wood, only partly explaining the awkward rigidness evident in the painting.

In American Gothic , neither the tight-lipped man nor his grown-up daughter seem to be very warm or open. Aging and balding, the man is serious and stern but, unlike his daughter, is more dominant and direct, looking the viewer right in the eye. With a pitchfork in hand, he is identifiably a farmer, perhaps anxious to escape the limelight and retreat back to working the land. Holding the tool in front of him in a vaguely aggressive manner, he seems ready to weaponize it if necessary. What is he trying to protect? He might be displaying concern for his property, but it could also be that he is trying to shield his unmarried daughter from outside advances and influences. In this way, Grant Wood seems to play on the old “farmer’s daughter” joke/trope in this satire painting.

Prim and proper, the daughter in American Gothic seems aloof and distant as she furrows her brow and stares off vacantly, eyes averted and lips pursed, maybe in a learned act of modesty. High-necked and dark-colored, her dress is also demure. She’ll let her father handle the situation. In an effort to capture the essence of this character, Wood picked out an old-fashioned brooch and colonial print apron for his sister to wear when posing as the daughter in the painting. The print of her dress is also echoed in the curtains of the covered Gothic window of the house. Behind her, all of the windows are obscured, blocking the eyes of the viewer from looking into the domestic interior, a traditionally feminine space.

Critical Response to American Gothic Painting by Grant Wood

What did people think about this odd pair? Like the home behind them, Wood’s words suggest that he found these people to be a tad absurd, tragic even, despite how seriously they seem to take themselves. While many critics interpreted American Gothic as a somewhat snobby judgment on those who could be viewed as good, hard-working Americans — the salt of the earth — Wood was familiar with this culture and from a similar background himself. Defending his painting, Wood stated, “These are types of people I have known all my life. I tried to characterize them truthfully.”

American Gothic Meaning Explained: A Critique of Small Town America

What is the hidden meaning of American Gothic ? Why is this painting so famous? In his painting, Grant Wood critiques and satirizes the restrictive and at times repressive nature of small town American life in the 1930s more than the people themselves. In terms of composition, the tightly cropped painting suggests the claustrophobic and limiting nature of life in a small town, especially for women. The sad, slightly troubled expression on the daughter’s humorless face reveals her true feelings about her place within this social structure. The ceilings in the American Gothic house might be vaulted, but we can see in Wood's painting that the lifestyle and culture that come with it may be stifling.

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American Gothic: New Interventions in a National Narrative (review)

• Matthew Teutsch
• Johns Hopkins University Press
• Volume 35, Number 1, Winter 2012
• pp. 301-304
• 10.1353/cal.2012.0016
• View Citation

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The Evolution of the American Gothic Tradition in Literature

Introduction to literary studies (english 298), university of michigan, recommended for you, students also viewed.

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The American Gothic tradition is a literary movement that emerged in the 19th century and is still prevalent in modern literature. The term "Gothic" refers to a genre of literature characterized by its dark and supernatural elements, such as haunted castles, gloomy landscapes, and supernatural events. The American Gothic tradition, however, is distinct from its European counterpart and has evolved over time, reflecting the changes in American culture and society. This essay explores the evolution of the American Gothic tradition in literature and its significance in American literature.

The roots of the American Gothic tradition can be traced back to the Puritan era of American history, with works such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." Both works feature supernatural elements and explore the darker aspects of human nature, such as guilt, sin, and madness. These themes were reflective of the Puritan belief in original sin and the idea of the devil's presence in the world.

The American Gothic tradition continued to evolve throughout the 19th century, with authors such as Herman Melville, who explored the dark side of humanity in his novel "Moby-Dick," and Ambrose Bierce, who wrote stories that featured supernatural and macabre elements. However, it was during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the American Gothic tradition came into its own with the emergence of the Southern Gothic movement.

The Southern Gothic movement was characterized by its exploration of the decay of the Southern aristocracy, the grotesque, and the supernatural. Works such as William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" feature grotesque and disturbing characters, as well as supernatural elements, such as ghosts and divine intervention. These works were reflective of the changing American society, with the decay of the Southern aristocracy and the emergence of new social and economic forces.

The American Gothic tradition continued to evolve in the post-World War II era with the emergence of writers such as Shirley Jackson and Ray Bradbury. Jackson's short story "The Lottery" and Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451" both feature supernatural elements and explore the darker aspects of human nature, such as mob mentality and censorship. These works were

reflective of the social and political changes that occurred after World War II, such as the Cold War and the rise of McCarthyism.

The American Gothic tradition has continued to evolve in modern literature, with authors such as Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. King's horror novels, such as "The Shining" and "Carrie," feature supernatural elements and explore the darker aspects of human nature, such as addiction and obsession. Gaiman's works, such as "American Gods" and "The Sandman," feature supernatural elements and explore the relationship between mythology and contemporary culture.

In conclusion, the American Gothic tradition has evolved over time, reflecting the changes in American culture and society. From its roots in Puritan literature to its emergence in the Southern Gothic movement and its continued evolution in modern literature, the American Gothic tradition has explored the darker aspects of human nature and the supernatural, and has had a significant impact on American literature. As American society continues to change and evolve, it is likely that the American Gothic tradition will continue to evolve as well, reflecting the fears and anxieties of contemporary society.

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