"American Gothic" is America's most famous painting. Grant Wood's 1939 portrayal of rural life in Iowa now resides at the Art Institute of Chicago. There has always been gossip and mystery surrounding the two central figures. They were not husband and wife as many believed, but instead father and daughter as was Wood's intention. The woman is Grant's sister Nan, and the gentleman is Grant's dentist, Byron Mc Keeby. Initially, farmers from Grant's native Iowa were insulted by the painting. The artist's reply was that the painting was of a Gothic house and the people he imagined might live in that house. The portrait's popularity was not that the poeple were from Iowa, but that they were American. "American Gothic" continues to be one of the most recognizable American paintings of our time. Buy Posters Here From AllPosters.com