Andrew Wyeth is one of the best-known American painters of the middle 20th century.The woman in the painting is a real person - Christina Olson. She have suffered from polio, a muscular deterioration that paralyzed her lower body. The artist saw her once crawling across a field while watching from a window in the house. Wyeth had a summer home in the area and was on friendly terms with Olson, using her and her younger brother as the subjects of paintings from 1940 to 1968. 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. Ann, thank you for the inspiration! :)
Christina's World
tempera on wood • 81.9 × 121.3 cm
-
Andrew Wyeth