Christina's World, Andrew Wyeth, Tempera on panel,1948Submitted by Breezilyfloat673 t3_126lgqs in Art
sfxer001 t1_je9lslq wrote
My mother had a copy of this in our dining room. She always told me the woman had polio and could not make it home. I always questioned how did she get there in the first place? There’s no trail of her crawling there through the tall grass.
greatunknownpub t1_je9nd4y wrote
> Wyeth’s neighbor Anna Christina Olson inspired the composition, which is one of four paintings by Wyeth in which she appears. As a young girl, Olson developed a degenerative muscle condition—possibly polio—that left her unable to walk. She refused to use a wheelchair, preferring to crawl, as depicted here, using her arms to drag her lower body along. “The challenge to me,” Wyeth explained, “was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless.”
dewpacs t1_jeb3wem wrote
Interesting bit from Wikipedia:
A scene in the 1994 film Forrest Gump was inspired by the painting. When Jenny returns home, she throws herself on the ground and mirrors Olson's pose in reverse.
ghostcompost t1_jedoqf1 wrote
I think there's also a weird perspective trick going on here as well. We studied this painting in school. If I remember correctly, given how far she appears to be from the buildings, she's actually a giant. But you can't tell for some reason.
felixame t1_jeawtti wrote
My grandma had a copy in her living room. I always thought it was an oddly depressing painting to have in such a prominent place. No one ever really questioned it
eastoak961 t1_jebndr2 wrote
Yeah my grandma had a copy in her very stuffy living room. I still find the pairing oddly disquieting.
I much prefer his dog painting- master bedroom- https://wyethprintgallery.com/product/master-bedroom/
felixame t1_jebxbpc wrote
Whaaaat she had the dog painting too! I didn't know they were done by the same artist. When I was a kid I would imagine that one of the upper floor windows of the farmhouse was the same window from the dog painting.
Painting_Agency t1_jebf3ho wrote
Good taste in art, though.
PaulTR88 t1_jebbn76 wrote
My grandma had one in the dinning room, too. I never really got it.
mazurzapt t1_jecsjgu wrote
My mom loved this pairing as well. I find it so interesting that all these older women liked this painting. I wonder what the draw was? What did they see? I always thought it was weird but didn’t know the back story.
jacksont8 t1_jebiwsg wrote
I can copy and paste this exact comment and it’d be 100% applicable to my life haha. Literally ditto. I always imagined some mean dude just threw her in the field and walked away.
Burning_Flags t1_jecugi2 wrote
If only there was some sort of World Wide Web of information to answer this decades old question
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