Christina's World
{{Short description|Painting by Andrew Wyeth}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file=Christinasworld.jpg
| image_size=350px
| title=Christina's World
| artist=Andrew Wyeth
| catalogue=[https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78455 78455]
| accession=16.1949
| medium=Egg tempera on gessoed panel
| height_imperial={{frac|32|1|4}}
| width_imperial={{frac|47|3|4}}
| height_metric=81.9
| width_metric=121.3
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| museum=Museum of Modern Art
| city=New York
}}
Christina's World is a 1948 painting by American painter Andrew Wyeth and one of the best-known American paintings of the mid-20th century. It is a tempera work done in a realist style, depicting a woman in an inclined position on the ground in a treeless, mostly tawny field, looking up at a gray house on the horizon, a barn, and various other small outbuildings adjacent to the house. It is held by the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.[http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78455Christina's World]
Background
The woman in the painting is Anna Christina Olson (May 3, 1893 – January 27, 1968). Anna had a degenerative muscular disorder, possibly polio or Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder, which left her unable to walk. She was firmly against using a wheelchair, so would crawl everywhere. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when he saw her crawling across a field while he was watching from a window in the house. He had a summer home in the area, and was on friendly terms with Olson, using her younger brother and her as the subjects of paintings from 1940 to 1968. Olson was the inspiration and subject of the painting, but she was not the primary model; Wyeth's wife Betsy posed as the torso of the painting. Olson was 55 at the time that Wyeth created the work.{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,962060,00.html| archive-url=https://archive.today/20130105014348/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,962060,00.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=January 5, 2013| title=Andrew Wyeth's Stunning Secret| last=Corliss| first=Richard| authorlink=Richard Corliss| magazine=Time| date=1986-08-18|accessdate=2008-01-19}}
The house depicted in the painting is known as the Olson House in Cushing, Maine, and is open to the public, operated by the Farnsworth Art Museum.{{cite web| url=http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/olson-house| title=The Olson House| publisher=Farnsworth Museum| access-date=2010-09-05| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719114802/http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/olson-house| archive-date=2011-07-19| url-status=dead}} It is a National Historic Landmark and has been restored to match its appearance in the painting,{{cite web |url=http://www.freepressonline.com/Content/Community-Events/Community-Events/Article/Olson-House-and-Farnsworth-Homestead-Open-for-Season-/128/787/45902 |title=Olson House and Farnsworth Homestead Open for Season |last1=Museum |first1=Farnsworth |date=June 2, 2016 |website=www.freepressonline.com |publisher=The Free Press |access-date=October 28, 2016 |quote="The house’s exterior woodwork was restored... "}}{{cite web |url=http://www.longleaflumber.com/christinas-world/ |title= Christina's World: CUSHING, ME ~ Mid-18th Century |last1=Mena |first1=Tim |date=January 12, 2016 |website=www.longleaflumber.com |publisher=Long Leaf Lumber |access-date=October 28, 2016 |quote="multimillion-dollar renovation projects ... extensive renovations at the Olson House"}}{{cite web |url=http://knox.villagesoup.com/p/olson-house-lecture-details-year-long-effort/1526508 |title=Olson House lecture details year-long effort |last1=Ernest |first1=Dagney C. |date=May 20, 2016 |website=knox.villagesoup.com |publisher=Village Soup |access-date=October 28, 2016 |quote="the restoration of the house’s exterior woodwork ..."}} although Wyeth separated the house from its barn and changed the lay of the land for the painting. Wyeth is buried in the nearby Olson family graveyard.
Reception and history
Christina's World was first exhibited at the Macbeth Gallery in Manhattan in 1948.{{cite news|last=Kimmelman|first=Michael|title=Andrew Wyeth, Painter, Dies at 91|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/arts/design/17wyeth.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all|accessdate=May 5, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 16, 2009}} It received little attention from critics at the time, but Alfred Barr, the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), bought the painting for $1,800 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|1800|1948|fmt=c|r=-2}} in {{Inflation-year|US-GDP}} dollars). He promoted it at MoMA, and it gradually grew in popularity. Today, it is considered an icon of American art and is rarely lent out by the museum.{{cite web|last=Esaak|first=Shelley|title=Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth|url=http://arthistory.about.com/od/famous_paintings/ss/andrew_wyeth_christinas_world.htm|work=About.com|accessdate=5 May 2012}}{{cite web |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/01/20/opinion/shelving-christinas-world/ |title=Shelving 'Christina's World' |first=Christina |last=Baker Kline |website=The Boston Globe |url-access=limited |date=January 20, 2020 |accessdate=January 21, 2020}}
In popular culture
In Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Christina's World is one of the two paintings (the other one being Vincent van Gogh's Bridge at Arles) hanging on the living room wall of "an elegant, anonymous hotel suite" to which the astronaut David Bowman is transported after passing through the Star Gate.Clarke, Arthur, C. [https://books.google.com/books?id=d967AAAAIAAJ&q=%22christina%27s+world%22 2001: A Space Odyssey]. New American Library, 1993, p. 209.[https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/693da8ac-8125-4680-a5c5-db6a882a602c Olson House, Knox, Maine]. National Register of Historic Places, Registration Form, Section 8, p. 3. It does not appear in the film adaptation directed by Stanley Kubrick. The painting is, however, part of the sci-fi film Oblivion (2013), paying homage to the novel.
The life of Olson and her encounter with Wyeth is portrayed in the novel A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/books/review/piece-of-the-world-christina-baker-kline.html |title=Mystery Woman: A Novel Explores the Story of Andrew Wyeth's 'Christina's World'|last=Aikman |first=Becky |work=The New York Times|date=February 24, 2017 |access-date=May 5, 2018}}
A scene in the 1994 film Forrest Gump{{Cite web|url=https://the-take.com/read/how-was-greenbow-alabama-in-forrest-gump-influenced-by-the-art-of-norman-rockwell|title=How was Greenbow, Alabama, in 'Forrest Gump' influenced by the art of Norman Rockwell|website=The Take|date=4 November 2015 |publisher=ScreenPrism|language=en|access-date=August 22, 2019}} and a chapter in the 2020 video game The Last of Us Part II{{Cite web|url=https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q9Ar9e|title=ArtStation - The Last of Us Part II - Farmhouse, reuben shah|website=ArtStation|language=en|access-date=July 3, 2020}} were inspired by the painting.
The painting is also referenced in the 2020 film I'm Thinking of Ending Things,[https://austin.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/09-04-20-im-thinking-of-ending-things-movie-review-austin/#slide=0 I'm Thinking of Ending Things]{{Cite web|last=Bentley|first=Alex|title=Charlie Kaufman strangeness abounds in I'm Thinking of Ending Things|url=https://austin.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/09-04-20-im-thinking-of-ending-things-movie-review-austin/|access-date=September 7, 2020|website=CultureMap Austin|language=en}} a season-four episode of the TV series Atlanta, a Madeline Johnston song of the same name,{{cite web | url=https://genius.com/Midwife-christinas-world-lyrics | title=Midwife - Christina's world | website=Genius }} and Ethel Cain's music video for the 2022 song "American Teenager".{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ed_WWmFy9I&ab_channel=EthelCainVEVO | title=Ethel Cain - American Teenager (Official Video) | website=YouTube }}
The painting appears several times throughout HBO's Westworld (2016–2022).{{cn|date=December 2023}} Showrunner Jonathan Nolan has at least once mentioned Christina's World as a "reference" for the show's character Dolores Abernathy.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/16/westworld-interview-3-stray |title=Westworld producers on episode 3 burning questions |first=James |last=Hibberd |date=October 16, 2016 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=December 6, 2016}} Evan Rachel Wood, who plays Dolores in seasons 1–3, reappears in season 4 as a character named "Christina".
The painting appears in the 2011 movie A Separation by Asghar Farhadi as a decorative piece inside the house where most of the movie takes place.
5 minutes and 50 seconds into "Raid", the tenth episode of the animated series Common Side Effects (2025), Jonas Backstein finds himself taking Christina's place in a grim imitation of Christina's World. The sky is a stormy, foreboding red, and the Olsen House has been replaced by a darkened Swiss chalet.
The painting (altered) is shown in several episodes of Amazon Prime's Invincible (2021-), at the home Atom Eve grew up in, but this rendition of the painting is without Olson's figure depicted in the landscape.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cite web|author=Turnbull, Richard|url=https://www.moma.org/multimedia/audio/11/228|title=Brown Bag Lunch Lecture: Popular Favorites and Critical Disdain: From Pavel Tchelitchew's Hide-and-Seek to Andrew Wyeth's ''Christina's World|publisher=Museum of Modern Art}}
- {{cite web|author=Meryman, Richard|date=May 14, 1965|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA94|title=Andrew Wyeth: An Interview|pages=92–120|magazine=Life|via=Google Books}}
{{Andrew Wyeth}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Christina's World}}
Category:Paintings by Andrew Wyeth
Category:Paintings in the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)