Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)

Olsons in the Snow

Details

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Olsons in the Snow
signed and inscribed 'Happy Birthday Joe./A. Wyeth' (lower right)
watercolor and pencil on paper
16 ¾ x 20 ¾ in. (42.5 x 52.7 cm.)
Executed in 1975.

Provenance

The artist.
Joseph E. Levine, Greenwich, Connecticut, gift from the above.
Estate of the above.
Sotheby's, New York, 3 December 1997, lot 196, sold by the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Literature

Exhibited

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth: Olsons and Kuerners, October 16, 1976-February 6, 1977, n.p., no. 129, illustrated.

Brought to you by

William Haydock

whaydock@christies.com + 1 212 636 2140

Lot Essay

This work will be included in Betsy James Wyeth’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work.

The present work depicts a rare view of the back of the Olsons' house in Cushing, Maine. Neighbors and friends with the Wyeths for over three decades, Anna Christina Olson served as the model for Wyeth's iconic masterwork Christina's World (1948, Museum of Modern Art, New York), where the Olson house appears in the distance from the front.

Wyeth gifted Olsons in the Snow to his friend and patron Joseph E. Levine, who owned over twenty works by the artist. Levine was a successful movie producer for Embassy Pictures during the mid-to-late 20th century, whose films include The Graduate (1967) and The Lion in Winter (1968).

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