ELDON — What could have happened between the man and woman in one of America’s most famous paintings?
That’s what Brad Schuster, a RAGBRAI rider from Denver, Colorado, wondered when he witnessed the house that inspired Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” emphasizing the contrast between the dour expressions of the two figures in the iconic painting and the home’s “green, inviting, beautiful” surroundings in real life.
Taking a short detour off the route, hundreds of RAGBRAI riders packed the grounds of the American Gothic House Museum around 9 a.m. Friday to see the house and snap photos in front of it, imitating the man and woman in the painting. Schuster and fellow rider Lisa Rutherford were excited to see the house and snag their own photos with it.
“To see the painting and then come here is just really cool,” Rutherford said.
The museum was not open Friday for RAGBRAI riders but welcomed them to the front lawn for selfies with the structure. For those who didn’t want to take a detour, organizers in Eldon set up a handful of cutouts of the figures in the painting. One in particular had a RAGBRAI-like twist: the woman was clad in a bikini and the man’s pitchfork held her bottoms.
Wood, arguably Iowa’s most recognizable artist with his hyperreal portrayals of Midwestern landscapes, painted “American Gothic” in 1930. It depicts a man and a woman, apparently father and daughter, as the unsmiling man holds a pitchfork and the woman looks in his direction with a stoic expression. Behind them is a house, with an arched Gothic-style window, modeled after the one in Eldon.
The real American Gothic House was built in the 1880s. According to information provided by the museum, Wood saw the house in 1930 when he was in town for an art exhibition. He drew a sketch of the house and took it back to his studio in Cedar Rapids to paint.
To his rendering of the house, Wood added the two people, modeled after his sister Nan Wood Graham and his dentist B.H. McKeeby.
The painting was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930 and became part of its collection, where it remains today.
The actual house, built by the Dibble family in the 1880s, remained a private residence or a rental property for several decades. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and donated to the State Historical Society of Iowa in 1991.
A museum documenting Grant Wood’s life and the house’s history, along with a gift shop, is steps away from the house. The museum has a collection of Grant Wood paintings and works by other artists inspired by “American Gothic.”
According to its website, the museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. Admission for teens and older is $5, though the gift shop is free to enter.
The actual house has separate hours and is only open on select days: the second Saturday of each month from April to October, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Those hours are subject to a volunteer being available.
Chris Higgins covers the eastern and northern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_.