NAMES IN THE NEWS : ‘American Gothic’ Model Turns 90

Nan Wood Graham, the model for the dour-faced farm woman in “American Gothic,” was honored at a 90th birthday party that featured the homespun qualities her famous brother sought to capture in his paintings.

Graham did some posing again Wednesday, this time for photographers at the party held at the convalescent hospital where she lives. Then she listened to old friends sing hymns and turn-of-the-century songs as music came from an old upright piano.

“The painting has become my entire life,” she said. “It has gotten me invitations to places I would never have seen.”

Graham and the family dentist posed for “American Gothic” in 1930. Her brother, artist Grant Wood, intended to show a farm couple stoically enduring the harsh rural life in Iowa.

The sister said her brother received only $300 for the painting in a contest sponsored by the Art Institute of Chicago and never made another dollar from it after that.