The Story of a Masterpiece: Why Wyeth's World of Christina Became a Cult American Cult

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Almost every nation has cult works of art that fully reflect their spirit, mentality and attitude. Today I would like to talk about a picturesque creation American artist Andrew Wyeth "Christina's World" - a cult canvas, which for the people of America has the same meaning as for us the most famous canvases of Russian classical artists.

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) - American realist painter, one of the most famous American painters of the 20th century. He was the son of renowned illustrator Newell Converse Wyeth, brother of inventor Nathaniel Wyeth and artist Henrietta Wyeth Heard, and the father of artist Jamie Wyeth.

Wyeth chose provincial life and the sparse nature of the American prairies as the theme of his work. Each canvas of the painter is a story, and sometimes even a whole novel, through which the master, by means of pictorial means, conveys to the viewer his attitude and subtle inner world.

His works, consisting of the smallest strokes, can be contemplated for an infinitely long time and each time you find something new for yourself. And what is interesting, some of his paintings seem to be written hyperrealistically, but no one will say that they look like photographs. And this is probably why the critics gave the artist's work a definition - "symbolic realism."

So, "Christina's World" is the most famous painting by an American artist. At first glance, nothing surprising, just a little the situation seems non-standard. In the middle of a field with dried grass, we see a fragile girl sitting with her back turned to the viewer. She looks intently at the buildings depicted in the background. However, starting to look more closely at the image of the heroine, we see that we are not at all a young person - her strands of hair have already noticeably silvered with gray.

And when the gaze turns to her hands, it becomes completely uncomfortable. Her hands, withered by thinness, are unnaturally tense, but the twisted fingers - gray with dust, which literally cling to the ground, are especially shaking. In this gesture, an incredible effort and struggle can be traced … Then the gaze falls to his feet, the same thin, but lifeless - and the viewer, shocked to the depths of his soul, begins to understand a lot.

The history of the painting

Turning to the official origins of the painting, you can learn the shocking life story of Christine Olsen (1893-1968), a woman who lived next door to the artist in Cushing, Maine. As a 3-year-old child, she contracted polio, a disease affecting her lower body. She then managed to survive, but her health condition deteriorated every year and by the age of 30 she could only take a couple of steps. And then Christina until the end of her days lived with paralyzed legs, crawling around the house and the estate. Of course, she had a wheelchair, but in order not to bother her relatives with requests to transport her from one place to another, the woman preferred to move independently in such a way in order to preserve her freedom.

One day, Andrew Wyeth, from the window of his house, which stood next to the house of the Olson family, saw Christina crawling across the field. Out of surprise, the artist immediately came up with the idea to help the unfortunate woman - for the first time he saw that she was moving around the neighborhood in this way. And then I realized that she was not covering this distance for the first time, and not for the last … And he held back his impulse so as not to offend with pity.

What he saw excited the artist so much that he decided to create a picture. However, he did not dare to suggest this woman, offended by fate, to pose for him. Therefore, his wife Betsy Wyeth posed for the artist. By the way, Christina Olson was 55 years old when Wyeth created this picture, and she lived after another 20. Many residents of the city, including the artist, admired the strength of the spirit of this fragile woman.

Later, the master recalled working on the canvas this way:

Indeed, at first, according to the artist's idea, there was no image of a doomed woman, everything had to look as if the viewer was looking at the world through her eyes. But then he changed his mind and still wrote the heroine in the pink dress in which he saw her in the field.

And it should be noted that the artist worked on his paintings for a long time, as he meticulously prescribed all the smallest details. And in the case of "Christina's World" he prescribed only one dried grass for about 5 months, as he worked with a dry brush, which consisted literally of one hair. Wyeth used tempera in his work, which, unlike oil paints, allowed the master to create such delicate works.

Thanks to the combined perspective, the viewer gets the impression that there is a huge space in front of him, since he sees the structure in the distance through the eyes of Christina sitting on the ground. And the woman herself - from above - through the eyes of an artist who looks at this scene from the second floor of his house. This perspective, deliberately chosen by the artist, plunges the viewer into the world of a disabled person, in which there is so little and at the same time immensely much.

By the way, the house that the author painted on the canvas is now known as the "Olson House". It has been restored to the look of Wyeth, listed as a National Historic Landmark in the state, and opened to the public.

After writing, the work of the painter was very restrainedly noted by critics, and very few knew about its existence. But the painting's fate changed dramatically as soon as it was purchased for the New York Museum of Modern Art. After the very first exhibition, its popularity began to grow rapidly and today it is considered an American symbol of modern art.

Wyeth painted other portraits of Christina, depicting her already within the walls of her home.

Another of Wyeth's best paintings, Wind From the Sea, is also based on Christina Olson's attitude.

Andrew Wyeth himself is also a mystery to both his contemporaries and posterity. His whole life seemed to be divided into winters, which he lived in Chadds Ford and summer months, which he spent in Cushing, Maine. The artist led a reclusive lifestyle, working a lot on his works. And what is curious, in his works images of people are often absent, and if he nevertheless portrayed them, then they never looked at the viewer - their gazes were turned either towards the window, then simply into the distance. They neither dreamed about the future, nor recalled the distant past.

Continuing the theme of the history of the creation of paintings of world art, a story about the canvas "The flood of Biesbosch in 1421"., which was created by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 400 years after the terrible disaster, based on the legend of the cat that saved the baby.