When you turn left after Thomaston prison on Cushing Road, and drive up and down hill , you land in a painting.
A stark, weather-beaten farmhouse sat on a grassy rise overlooking the Georges River and the distant sea. The grass is emerald green and a row of pines fringe the horizon. This is the scene from Andrew Wyeth's haunting Christina's World below :
Christina’s World – Andrew WYETH
Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) is one of the most popular american painters of the twentieth century.
His spare watercolours often evoke a spiritual connection to rural landscapes that strike a chord with many. His interior views seem weather dependant and unsheltered.
In his art, Wyeth's favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine.
The Olson Home was built in the 1700s by the Hathornes, a seafaring family. A half century later, their descendants, the Olsons, invited the young Andrew Wyeth to use one of the upstairs rooms as a part-time studio.
Wyeth used his upstairs studio for 30 years, and featured the house in many paintings and lithographs. He captured stark rooms, austere mantels, and somber rooftop views.
Everyone knows that old houses take on the personalities of their owners, but Wyeth knew something more. "In the portraits of that house, the windows are eyes or pieces of the soul, almost," he said years later. "To me, each window is a different part of Christina's life."
Christina Olson died in 1969. She had lived in the house her entire life. Neighbors say she had no idea that her small world had become famous.
Olson House – Cushing – Maine
Still as vivid as in Andrew WYETH paintings.
THE WYETHS – 3 generations of American Art
MONA BISMARCK FOUNDATION
from November 10th 2011 to February 12th, 2012
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