Gerald Christians
Andrew Wyeth Essay
Human Potential
LSHUM-200R
Summer II
August 21, 2008
Sr. Bernadette McInnis Christina’s World_
_ by Andrew Wyeth In 1948, Andrew Wyeth painted one of his most famous works entitled Christina’s World. The subject of the painting is a neighbor of the Wyeth’s, Christina Olsen, who lived on a farm in Cushing,Maine. Wyeth has been called Americas Greatest Living Painter, his style had been called Realism. Realism means that he paints scenes that are real, they are not abstract or fiction. Mr. Wyeth has been quoted as saying that he cannot paint from memory, he must experience what he is going to paint, it has to be real a place where he can walk through the landscape, the house or meet the person whom is to be the focus of the painting. The inspiration for “_Christina’s World_” came to Wyeth from his neighbor Christina Olson, whom he had been introduced to by his wife Betsy. Olson had been stricken with a physical ailment, which left her unable to walk. However, she was a strong woman who never asked for any help, nor did she let her physical ailment slow her down. Art critic Kristina Fraizer-Henry says “When a piece speaks to you, you don’t stop to ask .. whois the painter? What significance did they play in history? What were they trying to say with this piece”. For Fraizer- Henry when she first saw “_Christina’s World__”_, nothing else mattered, the painting brought out several different emotions and feelings, and that is what mattered to her. Fraizer-Henry points to several different elements in the painting. First is the focus of the paining, Christina Olson. Christina is sitting on the ground with her back to us so the expression on her face is not visible, yet the position of her body, the way one arm is holding her up and the other is outstretched towards the house, conveys to the viewer her longing to be at her house. Fraizer-Henry points out the level of details that Wyeth uses in his paintings, the...