American Gothic is a 1930 oil painting by Grant Wood that depicts a stern-faced Midwestern farmer standing beside his spinster daughter in front of a Carpenter Gothic-style farmhouse in Eldon‚ Iowa․ The figures were modeled by Woods sister‚ Nan Wood Graham‚ and his dentist‚ Dr․ Byron McKeeby‚ who are dressed in old-fashioned‚ rigid attire that reflects the restrained and serious character of rural American life during the early 20th century․ The man holds a pitchfork vertically‚ creating visual lines that echo the pointed-arch window of the house behind them‚ a detail that gives the painting its name and connects it to the Northern Renaissance and Flemish artistic traditions Wood studied in Europe․ This gallery is dedicated to parodies of this original work․