You know Edgar Allan Poe. He is one of the pioneers of romanticism. As you read your stories, your heart seems to be out of place. The voice of the dead who sticks his nails to the woods in his grave and crushes your ears scratches your ears. It was exactly what I felt when I read the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cat. A scary farmhouse, a creepy wife, a black cat walking around…

Today I will tell you about the American Gothic painting that I have an interesting connection with this story.

Grant Wood made this painting in 1930. The work is thought to be the painting that best describes America and small-town culture. In other words, it is one of the most famous paintings that come to mind when it comes to American painting.

Wood stated that the people in the picture are a father and daughter, but we know that the artist uses his dentist and sister as a model. Different readings can be made for this picture. Different readings according to politics or culture … An urban citizen may think that this picture is teased with the Mid-West, or someone from the Mid-West might say that the artist describes them well.

In the picture we see the farmer and his daughter in front of a farmhouse. The rake in the hands of the man tells about the workmanship under difficult conditions and the flowers behind the woman tells about the domestic and servant. They represent the conservative aspect of America. In 1930, when the painting was made, America was a developed, industrialized country. But the gothic house in the picture, the apron on the woman, the man’s clothes look more like handmade. So this picture represents before 1930.

For some reason, the male of these two figures makes me tremble. Even though I cannot fully predict how it feels, I feel the need to miss my eyes the moment I meet the man. I feel so sorry for the woman. Because he looks at places other than painting with a slight embarrassment with his father. It looks like fatigue and malaise on your eyes and face… We can make many comments about faces and characters because Uncertainty dominates the whole picture. Thanks to this uncertainty, everyone sees what he wants to see.

We can say that the detailed designs and natural views of the figures are the effects of the Northern Renaissance that the artist saw in his travels in Northern Europe. Especially the new beard roots on the man’s face can be one of the best examples of this. The same naturalness is absent in the whole picture. Look at the trees in the back, they are quite round and generalized.

Wood is a Regionalist painter. His most famous work, American Gothic, gets his name from a gothic style house he loves and likes.

Note: After reading Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cat story, this painting can come to your mind 🙂