If I remember right, she became blind ,after in life, but her malady was that She was a cripple- the photo I posted was her out on The lawn just enjoying the day. She stayed in the house quite awhile I beleive with her brother
Here is a quick article about Christina
“The story behind Christina’s World is part of the Wyeth legend, and wonderfully recounted in the exhibition catalog by Michael K. Komanecky, Chief Curator at the Farnsworth. On Andy’s 22nd birthday, he ventured to Cushing, Maine, to visit an artist friend. Knocking on his friend’s farmhouse door, Andy found himself face-to-face with the artist’s 17-year-old daughter, Betsy. Instantly smitten, Andy asked her to show him around town. Betsy suggested visiting her friend Christina Olson. “Two things happened,” Komanecky writes, “Andy fell in love with Betsy and married her the following year; and Andy befriended both Christina and Alvaro Olson, struck as much by their fierce independence as by the place in which they lived.” Over the next 30 years, Wyeth created over 300 works at Olson House, most of which focused on the lives of the brother and sister who lived there and touched his life.:
Finally, you come across that first drawing of a figure scrambling on the ground—an image inspired by Wyeth’s spotting of Christina Olson crawling back from her garden to the run-down house she and her brother struggled to maintain. Rendered unable to walk due to some mysterious disease, Christina dragged herself along the ground by her arms—an unforgettable sight that ignited Wyeth’s imagination. Pages of hands and arms in which Wyeth sought out the perfect pose lead to the climax of the painting itself (which, alas, is not part of the show due to concerns over its conservation). Christina and Alvaro died a month apart in the winter of 1967-1968. The Farnsworth’s own Alvaro and Christina, painted by Wyeth right after the pair’s deaths, portrays the duo in absentia through their home itself. A final drawing of Christina’s snow-covered grave sent a chill up my spine after remembering that Wyeth requested to be interred in that same graveyard, and was after his death in 2009. (The image above is from the January 31, 2009 public memorial held for the artist.)”
https://bigthink.com/guest-thinkers/the-world-behind-wyeths-christinas-world/
She was a rugged Maine coast woman. I worked on a bison ranch (not in Maine though) for a fella who’s sister was really crippled up by pain, but she would get up every day and drag herself across the road to the brush surrounding the bison pens, and cut the brush down little by little to clear out more acreage to expand the pens. It would cause her a great deal of pain, but she persisted day after day until, she absolutely could not do it anymore. She reminded me a LOT of Christina. Later when she could no longer do the work, I continued what she started, but used a chainsaw which made it easier than what she used, hand pruners, but it was still a hard job as the brush was thick, in the muck, and not easy to get to. She was an amazing woman.
Thanks! :)