'Christina's World' returns to Wyeth country


Dudley Rockwell, Andrew Wyeth's brother-in-law, poses with a copy of "Christina's World" outside the Olson House in Cushing, Maine. The painting is on display in Maine for the first time since the early 1970s

September 4, 2000
Web posted at: 9:37 a.m. EDT (1337 GMT)

In this story:

On loan from New York

More tourists expected

Spanning generations

Home resonates with painting's fans

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CUSHING, Maine (AP) -- On some days, you can catch them on the grassy slope. They fold their bodies into gentle curves, inching toward a weathered farmhouse.

Visitors to the Olson House have been known to stake out positions as they create simulations of Andrew Wyeth's signature painting, "Christina's World." One woman even brought her own costume.

"She went out to her car to change her clothes and put on a pink dress and got into the pose," says Margaret Smith, a volunteer at the old farmhouse that draws thousands of Wyeth devotees each summer.

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Most visitors, of course, do not attempt to mimic Wyeth's depiction of the crippled Christina Olson crawling through a field toward the house she shared with her brother, Alvaro.

Like pilgrims drawn to a shrine, they come from all over the country and overseas to the three-story house near the tidal St. George River that Wyeth captured in some 300 temperas, watercolors and drawings from 1939 to 1969.

On loan from New York

One of a handful of iconic American paintings, "Christina's World" has immortalized its twin focal points -- the resolute Christina and the house at Hathorn Point that was built in the 1700s and remodeled in 1871 by Christina's great-grandfather, a sea captain.

The empty farmhouse was closed when Dee and Dave Colton saw it for the first time two years ago, but like other Wyeth admirers they were captivated by the bucolic setting and its connection to one of the nation's most beloved artists.

"We looked in the windows and we were so entranced," Colton recalls. Since then, he and his wife have returned to the Olson House four times from their home in Boerne, Texas.

Now, nearly a half century since it left Maine, "Christina's World" has returned to Wyeth country.

The 1948 painting went on display Saturday at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland as part of a 20-work exhibit that will remain there until year's end. "Christina's World" will be on loan from the Museum of Modern Art, the first time it has left its New York City home since the early 1970s.

"It's a monumental occasion to have the painting allowed back into Maine," says Sarah Wilbur, coordinator of the Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth.

More tourists expected

The buzz generated by the return of "Christina's World" is sure to attract more visitors to the farmhouse, but no one really knows what to expect. The two-acre property was donated to the Farnsworth in 1991 by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley.

The house, open from Memorial Day weekend to October 15, now draws about 8,000 visitors a season, but people at the Farnsworth are wary of a potential influx of tourist traffic.

They still shudder at the unpleasantness that surfaced nearly 30 years ago when Hollywood producer Joseph E. Levine bought the house and filled it with paintings. Levine drew hordes of visitors who clogged the two-lane road and tramped on neighbors' property, leaving their trash behind.

Since then, the Olson House, set about 10 miles down a scenic peninsula off U.S. 1, has maintained a low profile. Its visitors tend to be serious Wyeth fans -- most of them "from away" -- who regard it as a destination, not a tourist haunt one stumbles upon.

Like some visitors, the Coltons made their initial Wyeth foray to Pennsylvania's Brandywine region, the artist's winter home.

"We went to Chadds Ford the first time to see his work," Dave Colton says. "That just got us going," his wife adds.

The Brandywine is also Wyeth country, the settings for paintings at Karl Kuerner's farm and the secret Helga paintings that became a worldwide media sensation when they became known more than a decade ago.

Spanning generations

In Maine, Wyeth country embraces an area of the midcoast frequented by three generations of artists who bear the famous name.

Andrew's father, the Massachusetts-born illustrator N.C. Wyeth, made his home in the fishing village of Port Clyde. Andrew settled in Cushing, where the family of his wife, Betsy, had a home. Their son, Jamie, lives and paints offshore on Monhegan Island, one of Maine's best-known art colonies.

The work of all three generations is as popular as ever. A major exhibition, "One Nation: Patriots and Pirates Portrayed by N.C. Wyeth and James Wyeth," opened in August at the Farnsworth, where it will remain for the rest of the year. After that, it will travel to five other locations, including the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford.

Also this summer, the Portland Museum of Art has put on an exhibition of N.C. Wyeth's work.

No paintings are on display at the Olson House, but the rooms are adorned with small photographic reproductions of Wyeth's works. Each was placed in the room depicted in that painting or at the vantage point where the artist did the work.

In an eerie re-creation, seed corn hangs from a line to dry near the window of a third-floor bedroom, just as Wyeth painted it in 1948. The burlap bag featured so prominently in his watercolor, "Beans Drying," is positioned identically in another bedroom.

Wyeth's 87-year-old brother-in-law, Dudley Rockwell, lives nearby and visits the Olson House daily to deliver a 20-minute talk that weaves in the history of the house and the artist's enduring friendship with Christina and Alvaro, who died a month apart in the winter of 1967-68.

Home resonates with painting's fans

Rockwell invariably begins the presentation by displaying a print of "Christina's World" and telling his audience of four to four dozen: "If you don't recognize this painting, then you probably shouldn't be here."

Those seeking a reality that duplicates the image may be disappointed. Rockwell notes that Wyeth took a lot of "artistic license," separating the barn from the house, omitting a stand of pine trees and setting Christina in a position that doesn't correspond to the precise lay of the land.

Perhaps most interestingly, Wyeth used his wife as a model. As a result, the skeletal arms of the 55-year-old Christina are attached to the body of the 30-year-old Betsy.

Janice Kasper, who oversees the Olson House for the Farnsworth, is amazed that so many visitors linger for hours, obviously finding a connection.

"It really doesn't mean much to people unless they know the painting. It's basically an old empty house," she says. "But there's something about it. It's in a beautiful setting, it's very pleasant, and if anybody has an old farm in their background, this is what it reminds them of."

The reclusive Wyeth, now 83, still spends summers in the area on a nearby island. Rockwell said his brother-in-law paints every day and will, on occasion, stop at the Olson House to look at the guest book where visitors can set down their comments.

"Once in a while he'll come by for a cup of coffee and I'll open up early so he can come in and read what people wrote about him in the book."