LB2017.19.65184

LB2017.19.65184

Contact sheet: (12) 120mm frames showing scenes from Ruohomaa's visit to Cushing, Maine, in the summer of 1951. Views include Wyeth standing near a doorway leaning on a Victorian parlor chair. and Wyeth sitting with family and friends on the rocky beach below the Wyeth summer residence in Cushing. Included in these photos are Forrest Wall, a family friend who modelled for Wyeth, shown here shucking oysters; sons Jamie and Nick Wyeth; his wife Betsy (née James) Wyeth; and an unidentified family friend visible at the right of one frame); Wall and Betsy Wyeth (in separate frames), apparently preparing a meal in the kitchen at the Wyeth house. 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. Betsy Wyeth reportedly did not have a fond recollection of the visit: she complained of Ruohomaa's penchant for alcohol and his habit of dropping cigarette ash on the floor.