From collection Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
LB2017.19.1514
Andrew Wyeth poses with Alvaro Olson in the doorway of the ell between the Olsons' house and barn. Olson, dressed in work clothes at left (leather boots, suspenders, torn wool shirt, newsboy cap) leans in a doorway and Wyeth stands (or sits, in other frames) on a granite step, surrounded by weeds and grass, just below. Alvaro Olson was the brother of Anna Christina Olson, herself the subject of Wyeth's iconic 1948 painting, "Christina's World". The painting includes a view of the Olson farmhouse 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.
