Anna Christina

Wyeth first became acquainted with Anna Christina Olson and her brother Alvaro in 1939 after Betsy James (who became Wyeth’s wife the following year) brought the artist to the Olson home in Cushing, Maine. Christina became his muse for the next three decades, most famously portrayed in Christina’s World (1948, Museum of Modern Art).

This final portrait of Christina was painted just half a year before her death in January of 1968. It is remarkable in its bluntness, with her sidelong, inscrutable gaze conveying both her independence and implicit trust in the artist. Christina’s demise, along with that of her brother just one month earlier, brought an end to Wyeth’s preoccupation with the Olson family and property, and prompted him to search for new subjects.