'American Gothic': A Man, a Woman and a Pitchfork

"WHEN Steven Biel followed Route 16 (the ''American Gothic Parkway'') out of Eldon, Iowa, onto American Gothic Street to visit the source of his subject -- Grant Wood's painting -- it ''didn't occur'' to him at first to look at the house ''anywhere but straight on.''"

American Gothic

"In his home of Cedar Rapids, locals knew Grant Wood as the "town artist." A self-taught painter and devoted Iowan, Wood's early canvases, often meticulously rendered landscapes of fields of corn waving in the wind, showcased his love for his home state. But it's his most famous painting for which the majority of Americans will remember him. Need a hint? Here are four: a white house with a sloped roof, a sour-looking woman, a stern man... and a pitchfork."