LB2017.19.65178

LB2017.19.65178

This air mail envelope bearing the Black Star logo has a single contact-printed frame of 120mm film affixed to it, along with a scattering of editor's notes. In the frame, Andrew Wyeth, a longtime friend of Ruohomaa's, sits with an aged Anna Christina Olson, who was the subject for Wyeth's iconic 1948 painting "Christina's World" (the painting includes a view of the Olson farmhouse, whose interior is pictured in the photo).Her brother, Alvaro, stands behind them in the shadows; the trio pose before a sunlit window gazing outside. The frame is marked up in red crayon; in this case, Black Star editor Howard Chapnick selected the frame for inclusion in the 1977 book, "Night Train from Wiscasett Station", a posthumous tribute to Ruohomaa's work (the author Lew Dietz, another close friend of the photographer, wrote the text for the book). Notes: "ROLL 546/ KOSTI RUOHOMAA/ (CENTER FRAME)/ page 8" "This is Andrew Wyeth with "Christina" of "Christina's World"/ Her brother, Alvaro, is in the background" Ruohomaa met American realist painter Andrew Wyeth in 1947 through their mutual acquaintance, the sculptor George Curtis. The two enjoyed a long friendship and had a few eccentric adventures (see "Kosti Ruohomaa: Andrew Wyeth Collects a Hearse" and "Kosti Ruohomaa: Andrew Wyeth's Deserted House"). Arguably, they also shared some artistic affinities. For example, each had his own way of imbuing otherwise ordinary scenes with complex emotion, and both men often seemed to view their subjects as elemental forces. The painter invited the photographer to his family's summer home in Cushing, Maine for a visit of several days in June and July of 1951. The occasion yielded some notable portraits of Wyeth and his family; in effect, Ruohomaa was able to study Wyeth in one of his native habitats.