Discuss the "very strange connection" between Andrew Wyeth and Christina Olson.

Discuss the "very strange connection" between Andrew Wyeth and Christina Olson.

I’m not so sure it was a strange connection. As the author has pointed out in her notes they were really kindred spirits. They were alike in many ways most notably independent but reliant on others to take care of their basic needs. Christina most likely saw Wyeth as a distraction from her harsh life and her frustration with her need for her brother’s help. Andrew was certainly escaping his reliance on his wife when he retreated to the Olson House.

Andrew felt comfortable with Christina because she wasn't agressively pushing him to "Produce" like his wife was doing. Christina's world was an escape for Andrew - a vacationland if you will. Christina felt comfortable with Andrew because he didn't feel sorry for her and he didn't see her as an invalid or someone with severe disabilities. When the actual sitting for the painting happened, he freed her to sit in the field in her beautiful dress. Christina felt truly desirable during that sitting.

Both Andrew and Christina seemed to be people who lived "inside themselves". They both saw the countryside and the world in a similar way. Andrew could see Christina's inner beauty (I think Walton did, too, but he couldn't just be connected to her like Andrew could. Walton's would have had to marry Christina) Andrew did not have to have any responsibility for Christina so he could just accept who she was.

I saw nothing strange about their relationship. As in all good friendships there was compatibility and curiosity about the other person. An interest in one another's lives and every day existence. A similarity in outlook and a willingness to learn something new.

I think Andrew Wyeth had some thing known only to himself that drew him to interact with and paint Christina Olson for so many years. For the painting, “Christina’s World,” Wyeth used other models for the upper torso area, really only using Christiana Olson’s lower extremities as the model for the painting. I think his strange connection was really about a desire to capture a sense of the New England landscape in it various forms more than it was to capture the essence of Christina Olsen.

I didn't feel that their relationship was strange. They shared a common knowledge of what it was to be an outsider and not totally accepted— by their families and the outside world. There was no pretense in their relationship, they just were who they were. It was a "safe" relationship for them both.

I didn't think of it as a strange connection at all. Nothing about Christina or her situation is mainstream so that she would connect with others in nontraditional ways didn't surprise me.

As I said, I came in late, so there have been so many thoughts given ahead of mine, I agree with most of the answers above. I do feel that they both felt there was a freedom for them to be friends. Andy because he was married and settled, he felt he could have Christina as a good friend, with no responsibilities to her. I think Christina felt he was friend that added so much to her limited life.

I think their experiences with health issues at young ages & their similar temperaments allowed them understand each other better than most other people understood them.

I agree with some of the others that Christina and Andrew felt free to be friends without societal constraints on them. I'm sure that having the run of the place, with his own studio on an upper floor was a huge draw for Andrew as well. I know he loved his wife, but she was pretty focused on Andrew's future and making sure he 'produced' enough paintings. This book spurred me on to learn more about the characters, and one thing I discovered is that Andrew Wyeth, the year before he died, let it be known that he wanted to be buried in the Olson family graveyard because he wanted to be near Christina. (!)

I agree with the comments above that the relationship wasn’t “very strange.” They felt a kinship because they both had a disability. I thought, though, that the relationship was a bit forced on the part of the author.

They shared a person they both loved Christina's friend and Andrew's wife Betsy. They both share a disability with Andrew's limp and Christina's difficulty walking and they also both share very small lives. Although Andrew became a famous painter, he lived in a relatively alone world when he was painting and Christina lived in a very small world, staying in her homes and surrounding grounds and only traveling outside of the area 2 times when she traveled to Boston. I don't think there was anything strange at all about Andrew and Christina's relationship.