The “Real Gothics”

This is neat. The original models for artist Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” stand next to the painting in this picture taken years later…
American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood’s inspiration came from a cottage designed in the Gothic Revival style with a distinctive upper window and a decision to paint the house along with “the kin…d of people I fancied should live in that house.” The painting shows a farmer standing beside his spinster daughter. The figures were modeled by the artist’s dentist and sister. The woman is dressed in a colonial print apron mimicking 19th century Americana and the couple are in the traditional roles of men and women, the man’s pitchfork symbolizing hard labor, and the flowers over the woman’s right shoulder suggesting domesticity.

It is one of the most familiar images in 20th century American art, and one of the most parodied artworks within American popular culture. (wiki)