American Gothic, by Grant Wood

To understand the title of the painting, it's necessary to look at the house behind the two characters, which refers to the Gothic architectural style of the window of the building.

The composition presents a young woman in conservative attire, with her eyes averted, standing beside an older man, who wears a dark suit over overalls and a collarless shirt.

The older man, who is bald and wears glasses, holds a three-pronged pitchfork - an antiquated tool at the time - and stares fixedly at the viewer.

The inclusion of the pitchfork in the work is intriguing and almost seems like a character in its own right.

The teeth are pointed upwards, in a position that is not orthodox, where a typical farmer would have planted them safely in the ground.

This detail raised many questions about the meaning behind the work of art.

The shape of the pitchfork suggests that it could be a symbol of masculinity and sexuality, which was synonymous with perversion in the Puritan Midwest.

Behind them is a modest white house, with a decorative Gothic window positioned between the heads of the couple.

The curtains of the window echo the pattern of the woman's dress, and some potted plants are visible on the veranda, just above the woman's shoulder.

Green trees, with a suggestion of perhaps a church tower, along with a red barn, fill the background.

Two days before the opening of the exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, where the canvas was exhibited, Chicago Evening Post published the image, announcing it.

The impassive subjects - which many presumed to be a married couple - generated an impressive interest, and Wood became known across the country, practically overnight.

Thus explained the artist: I wanted to show a daughter and a father, not a couple as many suppose.

He simply invented some people and called them 'American Goths',  by being in front of a house of that style, essentially doing nothing to dissipate the ambiguity of the work.

The models of the couple, however, were his dentist Byron McKeeby and his younger sister, Nam Wood Graham .

The interpretations of their representations of Midwestern types, typical of American Folklore and the agricultural activities of Iowa, provoked contradictory reactions at the time.

The reception of the work and its life since then reflect the curious imprecision of this seemingly direct image.

It raises more questions than answers.

Its title declares it American, but what, exactly, has of emblematically American?

The debates over national identity that dominated the mature career of Wood, play an important role in the interpretation of his work.

The 1930s saw a retraction of the growing cosmopolitanism as described by the art historian, Barbara Haskell : "a strong tension in popular culture" with "a pronounced reverence for the values of the community, hard work and self-confidence that were seen as fundamental to the national character and incorporated more fully in American small towns and farms".

Perhaps due to the ambiguity of the painting, and not despite it, the enigmatic couple of Wood became iconic.

Many different interpretations are possible, increasing the mysterious appeal of the painting, classified as one of the most important works in Art History.