Christina's World: Paintings and Prestudies of Andrew Wyeth

by Betsy Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth (Artist)

This album of photographs, watercolor sketches, watercolor paintings, and finished tempera paintings, accompanied by a revealing personal text, explores the world of Christina Olson, the subject of Wyeth's most famous paintings.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

281 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1982

Reviews

[Edie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read (consumed) this in conjunction with by Christina Baker Kline. I highly recommend this book which illuminates Wyeth's process as an artist and provides strong visuals of the life described in Kline's novel.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having just visited the Olson house, I was captivated by the intimate portraits—in both paintings and words—of siblings Christina and Alvaro Olson. The book was also about Andrew Wyeth, of course, and featured exquisite sketches and paintings of the Olsons and their home. But it was the Olsons themselves who stayed with me, helping me understand why Wyeth painted them for almost 30 years. A gorgeous book for those who love this painting.

[Cal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have had a postcard of this painting for years after seeing it in the MoMA - always found it haunting and to perfectly capture longing and steadfast determination as everything around you dies. So when my new roommate Dana busted this out i had to dive in!

The book has lithographs and studies from painting at the farm for 20+ years, and captures Wyeth’s friendship with Christina (including an unreal posthumous depiction of her father’s funeral). You get to see how much thought and long technical work it takes to be able to capture the background, and you see the artist’s touch as he refines his depiction of Maine, the olson farm, and Christina.

Will forever deepen my appreciation of the painting — truly Christina’s World is a piece only producible through love and thoughtful, careful devotion/depiction of character.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew you could find so much inspiration in one house and two people… Clearly, I am not an artist.

I had a print of “Christina’s World” hanging on my walls for at least two decades before I found out the woman in the painting was a real actual person. Years more until I found out the woman had some mystery debilitating affliction. Then I read “Orphan Train” and there was a bit about “A Piece of the World” at the end of it. So I read that, and now I am in an absolute internet lighting sand hole of Cushing ME and Hathorne Cemetery and Marie-Charcot-Tooth disease…

[Ann Woodbury Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up as a companion to Christina Baker Kline's novel "A Piece of the World," about Christina Olson. Betsy Wyeth has collected photographs of Christina and her family, along with many preliminary sketches and finished art produced by her husband Andrew Wyeth and featuring Christina, her brother Alvaro, and their home (both inside and out). It's a hefty volume (so have a large desk or table to read it on), but well worth the time and effort.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d never deep-dived a painting so much in my life but this one has really impacted me. It is fascinating to learn more about Andrew Wyeth, Christina, Alvaro, the farmhouse, and their relationships. We get to see the details of Christina’s world built up from pencil sketches, literally, which gives such a richer and deeper understanding of the painting. As she says, “all I do is think of that picture and I’m there.”

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a coffee table book highly recommended for anyone who is interested in Andrew Wyeth and Christina Olsen, his most famous subject. Wyeth sketched and painted the Olsen family and their Maine farm over and over, using a room in their ramshackle home as his summer studio.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect companion volume to Christina Baker Cline’s novel A Piece of the World.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting ready to visit the Olson House for the second time...this time with my book group.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this author for the first time and a well told story.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful I cried. Must track down a copy of this for my coffee table.

[Dan Dubois · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been an admirer of Wyeth's work and student of his methods. Ms Wyeth's book is filled with prestudy materials and brisk, almost gnomic commentaries. The pictures do most of the work, and that's fitting. Accounts of Wyeth fairly haunting the Olsons' homestead are part of the Wyeth lore. What's refreshing is the range of completeness of Wyeth's studies in watercolour,drybrush, and tempera. We're used to seeing the forbiddingly polished finished work, qualifying Wyeth as a genius. Seeing the prestudies leading up to the various Olson paintings and the 'Christina's World', you get something else. The way up to the finished work is paved in sometimes crude, sometimes half-hearted tries, and Ms. Wyeth puts them into this collection of sketches and finished works, in some cases, complete with Wyeth's shoe-prints. There is something American, honest, and in a way deeply humble, about picking this creative debris up off the studio floor and publishing it. The book is a privilege.
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[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Wyeth's wife Betsy was the driving force behind assembling this remarkable collection consisting of all the pre-studies and paintings that Andrew Wyeth did out at the Olson farm, indoors and out, over a period of twenty-odd years, including his most memorable painting Christina's World. The text and photographs provide a context for this body of work, not only of the Olson's isolated, rural world, but of the artistic development of Wyeth and his and Betsy's enduring friendship with Christina and her brother Alvaro over the years.

[Cathy Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. When I was in my early teens (or somewhere around there), I dreamed that I was this girl. I never thought too much about it until I was in a restaurant with my mom and I saw this painting hanging on the wall. It freaked me out a little.

Fast forward a few years and I saw this book on sale. Nice hardcover. Really. Nice.

So I bought it and never even looked at it. Seriously.

It's been dragged around and stored in all kinds of places and I still have it.

I finally looked at it and read it.

I love this book.

[Janellyn51 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful beautiful book. the back story on Christina Olson and her brother Alvaro and their home in Cushing Maine brought me to tears. It's not a lot to reading Betsy Wyeth's memories of Christina and her world, the drawings and illustrations of the paintings are delightful, but it's their life, and the hardships that they, like true New Englanders, never complained about that is so truly fascinating.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great beautiful book.
If you ever get up around Thomaston, ME,you can visit the Olson house. It is just as it was. Well worth the time.
Here is the web site.
http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/olson...

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

The black and white photos along with the narrative about Wyeth's relationship with Christina and Alvaro Olson is wonderful. Of course the pencil sketches, watercolors, dry brush and tempera works of art are fantastic. Great book.

[Avis Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Andrew Wyeth was a case of great technical ability married to a passion for dull subject matter. He was the king of insignificant barn-corner painting.

[Cami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful~
I love all the

[Sonie Mervis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous