Christina's World is a work by U.S. painter Andrew Wyeth, and one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century.[citation needed] It depicts a young woman lying on the ground, in a treeless, mostly tawny field, looking up at and crawling towards a gray house on the horizon; a barn and various other small outbuildings are adjacent to the house.[1]
Painted in 1948, this tempera work, done in a realist style, is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as a part of their permanent collection.[1]
The woman of the painting is Christina Olson; she had an undiagnosed muscular deterioration that paralyzed her lower body. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when through a window from within the house he saw her crawling across a field. Wyeth had a summer home in the area and was on friendly terms with Olson, using her and her younger brother as the subject of paintings from 1940 to 1968.[2] Although Olson was the inspiration and subject of the painting, she was not the primary model — Wyeth's wife Betsy posed as the torso of the painting.[2] Although the woman in the painting appears young, Olson was 55 at the time Wyeth created the work.[2]
The house depicted in the painting is known as the Olson House, and is located in Cushing, Maine. It is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Museum complex[3]; it is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and has been restored to match its appearance in the painting.[citation needed] In the painting, Wyeth separated the house from its barn and changed the lay of the land
Painted in 1948, this tempera work, done in a realist style, is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as a part of their permanent collection.[1]
The woman of the painting is Christina Olson; she had an undiagnosed muscular deterioration that paralyzed her lower body. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when through a window from within the house he saw her crawling across a field. Wyeth had a summer home in the area and was on friendly terms with Olson, using her and her younger brother as the subject of paintings from 1940 to 1968.[2] Although Olson was the inspiration and subject of the painting, she was not the primary model — Wyeth's wife Betsy posed as the torso of the painting.[2] Although the woman in the painting appears young, Olson was 55 at the time Wyeth created the work.[2]
The house depicted in the painting is known as the Olson House, and is located in Cushing, Maine. It is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Museum complex[3]; it is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and has been restored to match its appearance in the painting.[citation needed] In the painting, Wyeth separated the house from its barn and changed the lay of the land
Andrew Wyeth defied all the movements of the modern are and painted the beautiful landscapes and people. He is well respected and a great draftsman and painter.
ReplyDelete