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For the Andrew Wyeth page:

Christina Olson and the Olson Farm[edit source]
It was at the Olson farm in Cushing, Maine, that he painted Christina's World (1948). Perhaps his most famous image, it depicts his neighbor, Christina Olson, sprawled on a dry field facing her house in the distance. Wyeth was inspired by Christina, who, crippled from (undiagnosed) Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, a genetic polyneuropathy and unable to walk, spent most of her time at home.

The Olson house has been preserved and renovated to match its appearance in Christina's World. It is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Art Museum. After being introduced to the Olson's by Betsy James, Wyeth built a friendship with the siblings and was soon allowed full roam of the farm and house where he did a number of works and studies of the Olson House and property. He created nearly 300 drawings, watercolors and tempera paintings at the Olson's from 1937 to the late 1960s. Examples of such works are Olson House (1939) and Wind from the Sea (1947). Because of Wyeth's popularity, the property was designated a National Historic Landmark in June 2011.

Other main works

 * Painted in 1947, Wind from the Sea depicts a breeze entering a window on the upper floor of the Olson house. It is an example of non-figurative portraiture and was a favorite of the poet Robert Frost.

For the Wind from the Sea page:

Wind from the Sea is a 1947 painting by the American artist Andrew Wyeth. It depicts an inside view of an open attic window as the wind blows the thin and tattered curtains into the room.

The painting is housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. but is not on view.

Creation[edit source]
The house belonged to Wyeth's friends Christina and Alvaro Olson who lived on the coast in Cushing, Maine. The window was located in an abandoned room on the third floor. Christina Olson was a frequent model for Wyeth, and would famously appear in the painting Christina's World about a year later. After opening a dormer window to cool down the attic he was working in, Wyeth was instantly inspired by the way the incoming breeze brought life to the tattered curtains. In an attempt to capture the moment, he made a sketch on the same sheet of paper he had been using to draw Olson.

Following the initial sketch, Wyeth spent months making studies of the window in various materials. Images of the sketch overlapping Olson and other studies in various materials are present in Anderson and Brock's Andrew Wyeth: looking out, looking in that show Wyeth's exploration of the drapery and composition.

Symbolism
Wyeth believed in the ability of ordinary things to carry symbolism, "profound meaning," and rich emotion. The same is true for Wind from the Sea. Comparing the rigid window frame to Christina's resiliency, the decaying curtains to her disability, and the crocheted birds to her delicate and surviving femininity, Wyeth considered Wind from the Sea to be a symbolic portrait of her.