Christina's World 27/08/2005 It is still a matter of some wonder to me that I now live upon the Great Plains, the legendary prairie of a thousand Western movies and television shows, the home of the Sioux, the Cheyenne and the Comanche. This land has entered the imagination of all people, not just the Americans. Central Asia has the steppe, a great ocean of grassland, and Africa the dry savannah with its flat-topped thorn trees, but nothing has the appeal to our spirit that resides in that simple phrase, the Great Plains.Yesterday, I was thinking about how to convey that feeling to someone who has never seen the prairie. It is not enough to say "endless rolling plains, grassland to the horizon and a vast and empty sky." There are other places of which we could say the same. And then I thought of a painting that conveys some of the appeal of the prairie, although that was never its intent.You will probably have seen this painting; it is the best known of all the paintings by a man I consider to be the greatest American artist: Andrew Wyeth. It is called Christina's World.I have compressed the file so that it does not take too long to load and the fine detail has been lost as a result. You can see the higher resolution picture if you click here.Andrew Wyeth was a New Englander and may never have seen the Great Plains, for all I know. If you were able to ask him about this painting, he would tell you that it was about Christina, a crippled girl that he knew and admired for her brave and dogged independence. Knowing this, we notice for the first time the girl's pitifully thin arms and her awkward pose. But that is not what has seized our attention on first seeing the painting; what gives the painting its power is the impression of space that it communicates. The unusual angle from which we view the scene makes the field seem vast and our eyes are drawn inevitably through that space to the horizon.And see how close to the top of the picture is the horizon and the buildings that crouch upon it. This might have made us feel cramped except that there is the great emptiness of the field before it and the sky above is suggestive of a huge emptiness too. There is nothing upon that skyline that indicates anything other than more empty space beyond.This is the real magic of the picture; that it gives us that feeling of space and openness. It is what first draws us into the picture and stirs a deep response to the huge emptiness it contains. And only once we have experienced this feeling can we return to the girl, Christina, to wonder at her position in the field and to want to know her story.Which is exactly what Wyeth intended, of course; he knew full well what he was doing. And he knew, too, that it was not necessary for us ever to hear Christina's story, that his painting would draw from us just the feelings of awe and wonder that he wanted to convey. He has succeeded in communicating to us how he felt about Christina.It is an entirely accidental by-product that the painting also conveys the sense of prairie. The setting is New England and, were we able to turn around and look elsewhere, we would see the hills and woods and patchwork fields of that countryside. But Wyeth has not allowed us that. He needed the vast emptiness in which to set the girl, to speak of what and who she was.And that same feeling of space explains far better than I ever could what is meant by the word "prairie".
Clive
John (SYNTAGMA) It's a wonderfully atmospheric picture, Clive. I've always admired those folksy American artists who captured the real feel of the West, especially the landscape artists. All we need is you standing the background singing, "Oh, what a beautiful morning ..". But I'd better leave that line to Stuart :-) Date Added: 27/08/2005
Gone Away I think my singing anything would put everyone right off, John! But this picture of Wyeth's is so haunting that I believe it stays with anyone who has ever seen it. Date Added: 27/08/2005
Autumn Loved 'listening' your evaluation! My appreciation of art tends not to expand beyond "I like that" or "That's nice" :o). Date Added: 27/08/2005
Gone Away Thank you, Autumn. :) Date Added: 27/08/2005
Marti That was wonderful, Clive! It is a marvelous vast space, and the painting does a good job of capturing it, but truly nothing but being there can fill one's soul with the awe of it. My husband was born in Dodge City, Kansas, and we've made the pilgramage back a few times. The children stared out the car windows at the rippling golden oceans of wheat, eventually spotting a structure (usually a grain silo) f-a-r off in the distance, and would be amazed at the amount of time it took to reach it. Thank you for sharing the art of the painting and your writing. Date Added: 27/08/2005
Gone Away Thanks, Marti - it's hard to realise just how immense is the space out on the Great Plains if you've never been there. That painting is about as close as anyone can get to describing it, I think; but you're right - it has to be experienced. :) Date Added: 27/08/2005
Josh You know, I've always liked Wyeth, though he has always been quite inaccessible when it comes to helping the viewer understand his art; the Salinger of oil painting, in many ways. He has a tendency to sway between works of great compositional clarity and others of odd and often not-readily-intuitive spatial disposition-- but his command of light can be quite amazing, and his choice of subject, sometimes seemingly so banal, tend to grow in meaning Christina's World is the painting often used to demonstrate his style, and I vaguely remember reading an interview with him where he elaborated on the painting, Christina, and the use of open space to symbolize her isolation -- something about a handicap, as I recall. Having seen first-hand the vastness of America, from the plains out to the northwestern forests, to the badlands, to the solitary and sparse beauty of the western desert, I am with you on the difficulty of explaining the sheer scale to people who haven't seen it themselves. Words fail. Date Added: 27/08/2005
Josh "grow in meaning, upon closer inspection." :P Date Added: 27/08/2005
Gone Away I agree, Josh - Wyeth's paintings vary greatly and are sometimes hard to appreciate. But the man is so good at what he does that he is well worth that "closer inspection". Christina's World is always the one shown as representative of his work and so is very well known, yet it loses none of its power through familiarity. For once, "they" chose the right one. ;) As for the man himself, I think he is right to be reticent in his explanations. Any work of art must stand by itself or not stand at all. And I don't mind Salinger being non-communicative at all - just wish he'd get writing again! Date Added: 27/08/2005
ME Strauss What a lovely surprise and fine tribute to the plains. I so enjoyed your tour of this painting, Clive, especially since it's been years since I've seen this or anything by Wyeth that hasn't tended toward his less vibrant palette.I did not know the story of Christina. Thank you for that too. Date Added: 27/08/2005
Josh Yes, you're quite right about art -- it should stand on its own. That would be my problem with 'fine art' anymore; The majority of what passes as (or is passed off as) post-modern schlock always seems to require the commentary of a snooty man in a euro-cut suit to provide even the slightest understanding of the artist's stated motivation -- when truthfully, it is easily summed up thusly: "I painted this bundle of sticks yellow to and sprinkled them with glitter because I figured it would get me a gallery show and rent money for my apartment in the east Village." Shame on me for falling into the trap. Next time I'll try and noodle it through on my own. ;) Date Added: 27/08/2005
Autumn I've always wanted to go to Africa (just read your series of articles), thanks for 'taking' me. May sound silly, but I think, if I ever by chance came upon the scenary you describe, I would 'recognize' it from memory. Autumn Date Added: 27/08/2005
Gone Away Entirely my pleasure, Liz. Always good to share really good art. Date Added: 27/08/2005
Gone Away You have it exactly right, Josh. And where will that snooty man in the euro-cut suit be in a hundred years time when it's being decided once and for all what was good and what was bad in today's art? Reckon it will all have to stand or fall on its own merit then. ;) Date Added: 27/08/2005
Gone Away If you ever manage to get to Africa, Autumn, I am sure it will not disappoint you. And thank you for your kind compliments. :) Date Added: 27/08/2005
Trée Clive, to echo something I just read . . . Wow. Wowwwwwwwwwwwww . . . :-) Date Added: 28/08/2005
Gone Away LOL Trée - sometimes it's the only thing to say... Date Added: 28/08/2005
Trée Touché :-) Date Added: 28/08/2005
prying1 It seems that all my comments to your blog have the words, "Great Post" in them... Date Added: 28/08/2005
Gone Away Why ruin a perfect record, Paul? ;) Date Added: 28/08/2005
Christopher Trottier I think the Rocky Mountains can rival the Great Plains any day of the week. Then again, I live in Western Canada. By the way, I love that painting. Date Added: 28/08/2005
Gone Away Never met anyone who didn't love that painting, Christopher. And I love mountains, too. But the feeling they give one is very different from the response we have to a limitless plain of grass. And that is less appreciated than our enjoyment of mountains - perhaps that is why I speak of the plains so often. Date Added: 28/08/2005
Ken This piece provokes me to say many things, Gone Away, not all of them specific to Andrew Wyeth, although, like you, I find the painting haunting, just as I do a good many of Edward Hopper's paintings of people and single, isolated homes set in vast landscapes. The contrast between Christina's helplessness and the enormous power of nature is especially pertinent this week, too. I was also moved by the comments of other readers, their nostalgia for their own pasts or roots and, as you say in the post, the tremendous evocativeness of the land ... Dodge City! ... The immense size of America became much clearer as I read. I wonder, by way of afterthought, whether or not Americans realise how important their culture and their country have been in the lives of non-Americans of our age? From the Cisco Kid and the Lone Ranger to Bob Dylan! From Blackhawk to Batman! From Hemingway to Roth! It never ends. Date Added: 30/08/2005
Gone Away How true, Ken. That is one of the things I find myself repeating to Americans - that the effect of American culture on the world over the last one hundred years or so has been far more extensive and far-reaching than they can possibly imagine. Any of those names you mention are a part of everyone's heritage now and there are so many more as well. In a way, America belongs to all of us... Date Added: 30/08/2005
Tay y is ur drawing so famous?!?!?!?!?! Date Added: 21/05/2007
Chuck This is my favorite painting. The first time I saw it I felt a special affinity. To me the painting portrays the ultimate in loneliness. I have always been sort of a loner and Christina's World shows the great emptiness and the great beauty of being alone. Andrew Wyeth has a great soul. Date Added: 19/01/2008
Virgil Reichle Your insight is astounding. As a native Kansan, I have always been hypnotised by this American materpiece. However, I have never been able to articulate its hauting attraction. Undoubtedly, is is a connection to my past that speaks to me in a familiar, yet unspoken language. Eventhough, this painting was not created in my beloved Kansas, it captures it's essence. Anyone that has ever read the book; Pioneer Women of Kansas by Joanna L. Stratton can understand the profound lonliness and beauty of this painting because it captures the pioneer spirit of those that settled the Great Plains. Date Added: 26/10/2008
Gone Away This was written three years ago now and I no longer live on the Great Plains (although their vast emptiness is with me still). Ironically, I live in New England at the moment, the same landscape in which Wyeth spent his life. And I wonder where he found such an empty field, for this country is thickly wooded and it is almost impossible to find a treeless vista. It is just as well that I am as strongly drawn to forests as I am to prairies! Thank you for your kind words, Virgil. I am just glad to know that others are as affected by this painting as I am. Date Added: 26/10/2008
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