Models for Grant Wood's American Gothic

Grant Wood, American Gothic (Art Institute of Chicago)

I just finished my chapter, “The Belated Return of the ‘Son’: Thomas Hart Benton’s Prodigal Son" for the book, Painted Portrayals: The Art of Characterizing Biblical Figures, that will be published by the Society of Biblical Literature Press later this year.

In my brief explanation of Benton's Regionalism, I explained that Benton was one of the “regionalist triumvirate”: Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood. 

The examples of art from Wood and Curry that I listed were Wood’s iconic American Gothic (at the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the best art museums in the U.S.) and Curry’s Tragic Prelude–John Brown, in the murals Curry created for the Kansas State Capitol (second floor, east corridor, if you get a chance to go there).

I then came across a newspaper photo of the models for Wood's American Gothic. It was so interesting that I had to share it: