American Gothic Grant Wood Analysis

In 1930, an artist by the name of Grant Wood painted American Gothic. The painting consists of a man and woman who happened to be brother and sister in real life. Two modes of analysis are used to compose this art analysis. A biographical analysis is used because the artist, Grant Wood, grew up and lived on a farm for most of his life in Iowa. By painting the background to look as if it were set on a farm, Grant Wood references the setting back to the time of living on the farm in Iowa. A contextual analysis was also used to write this analysis. In 1930, the Great Depression was occurring and people in the United States were suffering greatly. The Great Depression made people’s lives stressful and unhappy. The painting depicts a woman and man with very grim faces which can be inferred to the hard times people faced during the Great Depression.

One person is a female, and the other person is a male. The female has blonde colored hair, and it is put up off her neck behind her head. She has light colored eyes that are squinty. Her skin is more on the scale of being fair than dark. Her clothing is of dull colors. She wears a black top that has a white collar with a brown patterned vest on top of the shirt. The male is taller than the female in the painting. He does not have much hair on his head. He is wearing grey glasses, and his clothes are dull colored as well. He is wearing a striped white shirt with blue overalls and a black jacket on top. His skin is pail similar to the woman’s skin color. In his right hand, he is holding a farming tool called a pitch fork. In the background of the painting, there is a house that is painted an off-white color. There is also a dark red building with a brown roof that is in the background. In the back behind the red building, there are green trees that make up the rest of the