Two American Painters
文章來源: melly2007-12-19 19:13:54


Back from edrifter’s blog, I talked about his posting with a friend. Surprisingly, my friend recommended two more painters to me. They are Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth. Both edrifter and my friend opened a door of Modern American Painting for me. Both of the painters depicted people in everyday life.

The first was one of Norman’s paintings. See how cute the boy was. He was scrutinizing the doctor’s certificate with his butt half exposed, while the doctor was preparing for the injection.

From Wiki: Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894November 8, 1978) was a 20th century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are Rosie the Riveter (although his Rosie was reproduced less than others of the day), Saying Grace (1951), and the Four Freedoms series.

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The second painting was very impressive. Before I learned the background of this painting, my friend asked me to notice the girl’s bony arms. They were unhealthily skinny. However, the girl was struggling for something; some strong desires in her heart, even the audiences could not see the girl’s face and expression. The color of the painting was gloomy and hopeful.

There was a sad story hidden in the paining (from Wiki).

Christina's World is the most famous work by American painter Andrew Wyeth, and one of the best-known American paintings of the 20th century. Painted in 1948, this tempera work is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It depicts Christina Olson, who had an undiagnosed muscular deterioration that paralyzed her lower body—likely Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease—dragging herself across the ground to pick vegetables from her garden. She is the subject of a number of other paintings by Wyeth (many including Christina's brother). Surprisingly, although Christina is the artistic subject of this, Wyeth's masterpiece, she was not the model -- Wyeth's wife Betsy instead posed for the painting.

The house in Cushing, Maine, where Wyeth had been staying when he saw the scene that inspired the painting, still stands, although Wyeth took artistic license in its depiction, separating the barn from the house and changing the lay of the land. Known as the Olson house, it is on the National Register of Historic Places.