Siri

Following the death of Christina Olson in early 1968, Wyeth felt a deep sense of loss, not only emotionally but also as an artist. Young Siri Erickson of Cushing, Maine, would fill this void. Wyeth first met the Erickson family—which included George, his wife Siri, and their teenage daughter Siri—in the summer of 1967. Like the Olson and Kuerner families, the Ericksons appealed to Wyeth in their simple, stark existences. He was especially intrigued by young Siri and came to see her as “a burst of life, like spring coming through the ground, a rebirth of something fresh out of death.”