Artist:
Andrew Wyeth
(American, 1917 - 2009)
Miss Olson
Medium: Tempera on panel
Date: 1952
Dimensions:
33 1/2 x 37 1/16 in. (85.1 x 94.1 cm.)
Accession number: 2024.6
Copyright: © Wyeth Foundation for American Art / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Curatorial RemarksFour years after Andrew Wyeth painted Christina’s World, he created this tender portrait of Christina Olson. Miss Olson is a vivid, unflinching likeness of her in a moment of quiet contemplation as she lovingly holds a kitten tight to her chest. Wyeth humanizes this woman who, with the popularity of Christina’s World, would achieve an almost mythic stature. Here she is portrayed as maternal and caring, in a room whose moody darkness is punctuated by the crumbling wall that reflects the deteriorating state of the Olson family home.
On view