What is the title of Grant Wood's iconic painting of a farmer and his daughter?

Grant Wood’s iconic painting of a farmer and his daughter is titled American Gothic.

Wood painted the work in 1930, depicting a stern-looking man holding a pitchfork beside a younger woman in front of a sharply vertical, white wooden farmhouse. The painting’s title comes from the house’s pointed Gothic Revival window, not from a medieval or European setting. Its controlled lines and restrained expressions became instantly recognizable features of American modern art.

The people are often described as a farmer and his daughter, but they were models rather than a real father-daughter pair. The man was Wood’s dentist, Byron McKeeby, while the woman was Wood’s sister, Nan Wood Graham. Wood intended the figures to represent the kind of people he imagined living in the house.

American Gothic was first exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and won a $300 prize. It has since become both a celebrated painting and a frequent subject of parody, especially because viewers continue to debate whether the figures look proud, severe, worried, or simply weary.