Jan 27, 2011
The models who were used in “American Gothic” standing by the painting
Grant Wood saw a house in Iowa that he decided to paint along with “the kind of people I fancied should live in that house.” He chose his sister and his dentist.
Here’s the house…
Read more about “American Gothic.”
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Green Acres we are there! (duh duh duh duh duh – bonk bonk)
They don’t look too happy with the finished product, which seems appropriate.
people weren’t allowed to smile in pictures back then
Well they were but it just took a lot of time to take a picture–to get the light–that holding a smile just wouldnt look ok
The painting was done in 1930, therefore this photo was made some time after that. The requirement for long exposures was a problem for very early photography, and had ceased to be a problem *decades* before this picture was taken.
It’s pretty obvious they are just replicating their pose in the painting.
DERP! WTF!?!? How old do you think this picture is? This picture was taken about 1930, not 1870. Of course, they were able to smile! They probably were avoiding doing so to emulate their expressions in the painting so the viewer could more easily make the distinction that the people posing for the photograph were indeed the same people who had posed for the painting.
…actually, they WERE smiling…
yep:)
True story:
My wife and I were driving through Eldon, Iowa, and we decided to stop and take a look at the American Gothic house. There is a museum and a large parking lot next to the house, and a paved walkway up to the front porch, so we assumed that the house was part of the museum.
It turns out that the house is actually a private residence, and that the lady who owns the house sells pies out of her living room, presumably to guilt trip people who walk into her house uninvited into paying her money.
It didn’t work on us, though.
The Register wrote a story on this a few months ago.
She is a famous pie maker, presumably you don’t get out much.
I cannot imagine having that guy as my dentist. His face is long and sad like an old horse.
Dentists are said to have the highest suicide rate because their jobs are so monotonous. I think his face at his age is somewhat appropriate for the circumstances. Sad, but true.
Well that’s a dentist for you. Always looking down in the mouth :(
Thanks for the memory! My Dad was a Pastor of the tiny church right around the corner from the gothic house–Eldon Baptist Church. Eldon was, well, um, unique. But then, all of Iowa is “unique”.
I’m not sure what you mean by “unique”…maybe in that way that some people say “special”? :) Anyway, I am also from Iowa and we live here still today. I haven’t spent my whole life here, but I will say that Eldon stands out among it’s peers! For example, no one from our community would be pleased to have Eldon used as an example of “all of Iowa”! Maybe you need to visit more of Iowa!
Anyway, I was pleased find out that it is in nice condition, it didn’t look like it would still be around in 10 years the last time I drove through in 2001.
@Zeb, joke’s on you–fried pies are gooooood!
Oh, I’m sure they were great. They smelled fantastic. They were just really, really expensive.
A creative, graphically-inclined friend in Cedar Rapids has a connection to American Gothic, so he did his own recreation of it. You can read about it here: http://www.jwmorton.com/blog/grant_wood_parody_102109.html
I wish they had a picture on their website of all the parodies they had their staff do. I saw it in person and it was pretty funny (I think Darth Vader and Princess Leia was my favorite parody).
A couple years ago we accidently stumbled across the museum and house on our way to Des Moines. We took this picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/inafew/sets/72157624849082125/ of our daughter and her beau and this picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/inafew/5141521323/in/set-72157624829884698/of our son.
I always assumed he was holding a pitchfork in his hand. Now I recognize it as a dentist’s tool.
I hope that my dentist never comes near me with anything like that Ken !
He looks exactly like the picture, but the sister… she seems to look a bit prettier than her picture would imply.
Thanks for posting this. It’s a rare example of an artist’s finished work and the material he used to produce it.
Life Imitating Art…
that is so funny! i would love to meet the people that were in that picture.
She’s prettier than in the painting.
Forever immortalized in Grant Wood’s painting, Edith and Wally pose proudly at the debute…the after party is where they really go nuts!
The sister looks a bit prettier in the photo rather than in the painting.
My grandmother, Selma Jones Burkholder Johnston, was at her parents, Gideon & Mary Jones, home (the Gothic House) when Grant Wood stopped to ask if he could come back tomorrow and set up an easel to sketch the house. After he mentioned the unusual window, Mary and Selma decided to take the curtains down and wash them clean for the next day. Imagine their surprise when Grant didn’t include the curtains in his drawing that he later painted with his sister and dentist posing so gauntly!
I wonder how he asked his dentist!
…..
:)
They have a similar picture here in Vegas of and Elvis and Cher impersonator in front of the Chapel of Love.
Man, he didn’t do his sister any favors in the painting. She is much more attractive in real life! lol Of course, he painted the people he ‘fancied’ to live there, so he homelied her up I guess.
A barn-side reproduction east of Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Hwy 30.
http://scripturealone.blogspot.com/2010/09/american-gothic-barn.html
Wow Grant’s dead on with the guy but the lady was much prettier than he painted her lol