LB2017.19.104

LB2017.19.104

The painter Andrew Wyeth sits in a doorway in the abandoned Hoffses farmhouse studying the light streaming through the tattered window shade. The drawn shade, peeling wall paper, old furniture and detritus give the room a haunted quality. Ruohomaa met American realist painter Andrew Wyeth in 1947 through their mutual acquaintance, the sculptor George Curtis. The two had a long friendship which sometimes led to unusual adventures and some notable creative collaborations, as depicted in this group of photographs. In the summer of 1951, Wyeth coaxed Ruohomaa to explore an old house which had been occupied by generations of the Hoffses near Waldoboro, Maine up until 1941. Christian Hoffses, who built the home around 1800 with lumber sawn on the property, was a Revolutionary War veteran. Generations later, after the last occupant died, surviving relatives locked the door to the house and left the interior untouched. The home remained furnished: beds were made, dishes lay on the kitchen table, and unburned firewood sat in the woodstove. Wyeth had visited the house previously and, knowing something about Ruohomaa's aesthetic leanings as a photographer, realized he'd appreciate its air of mystery, the play of light and shadow, and the sense of a life suspended in time. As with the Louds Island hearse escapade (see LB2017.19.40972-LB2017.19.41321), he took these photographs as part of a spontaneous and offbeat adventure. While not a Black Star assignment, some of the Hoffses house images were used in a Life magazine article. [Ruohomaa, Kosti and Bourges, Fernand. (1957, July 27). Artist Paints a Ghostly House. Life, 80-83.]