LB2017.19.151

LB2017.19.151

Forrest Wall, a friend of Andrew Wyeth's, sprawls in a steel-framed chair of modern design. He holds a corn cob pipe to his lips and gazes to one side, away from the camera. His feet and lower legs are in focus, but most of his form is blurry, suggesting Ruohomaa used a wide aperture for the shot; it's uncertain whether this was intentional. The location is Wyeth's Cushing, Maine studio, near the Wyeth family summer home on Bradford Point. Wall modelled for Wyeth on a few occasions. He was a carpenter and a true local, with a workshop on the property which had been in his family for six generations. 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.