From collection Kosti Ruohomaa Collection
LB2017.19.65187
Contact sheet: (12) 120mm frames showing scenes from Ruohomaa's visit to Cushing, Maine, in the summer of 1951. Views include Andrew Wyeth with family and friends on the beach in front of the Wyeth family summer home; Wyeth's friend and sometime model Forrest Wall lounging in Wyeth's studio; Wyeth sitting with his parents-in-law (Elizabeth James (née Browning) and Merle Davis James) and a black dog in front of a mortared stone wall near the Wyeth home; and Wyeth with Merle James in humorous poses holding staves. 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.
