Christina's World

A woman in a soft pink dress crawling her way up a hill. No trees, no plantations, just a couple of cottages and a bleak barn up there. She looks up. Hopefully. Or victoriously. The distance she has crossed makes both true. Her hair is messy, tied into a bun. Summer wind wafting her hair and the dry grass all around her. She also looks used to devastation. The plain gray sky and the haunting atmosphere provided by the colours in the picture suggests that.

'Christina's World'. The muse of the painting is said to be Wyeth's neighbour. Anna Christina Oslon. She had a chronic muscular disorder that didn't enable her to walk. She was stubborn as to not use a wheelchair. She crawled everywhere. Wyeth was so moved by the life she chose that he painted it. His wife posed for the body. But the world belongs to Christina.

The painting clearly depicts the poverty around the region. This painting is a memorial to the life Christina chose. And chose fully. The softness of her dress and her beautiful crooked hands, and her long tied hair suggests that. But somewhere underneath the stubbornness and assertiveness, there is devastation. There is an inner question, "why me?" Wyeth grasped that even with having to paint her face, or any expression per se.

Christina's world is a piece for those who choose to sail a broken boat and not sink.