Christina's World Auction History

Provenance: Andrew Wyeth (the artist), 1948; Macbeth Gallery, New York (exhibited Nov–Dec 1948) [2]; The Museum of Modern Art, New York (purchased from Macbeth Gallery, 1949; accession no. 16.1949) [1][3].

Christina’s World has never appeared at public auction. After its first showing at Macbeth Gallery in late 1948, the painting was installed at The Museum of Modern Art and was purchased by MoMA in 1949 for $1,800, where it has remained ever since [1][2][3]. The museum’s early embrace—guided by curatorial leadership and followed by widespread reproduction—helped propel Andrew Wyeth’s popular recognition and institutional standing [3][5].

This early acquisition also foreshadowed robust institutional demand for Wyeth’s temperas in the decades that followed. By 1959, the Philadelphia Museum of Art paid $35,000 for Groundhog Day, reported as the highest price then paid by a museum for a work by a living American artist—an indicator of how quickly values for top Wyeths advanced in the postwar period [3]. In the auction market, the long-term ceiling for Wyeth’s temperas has continued to rise, culminating in the artist’s current auction record of $23,290,000 for Day Dream (1980) at Christie’s in 2022; earlier landmarks include Ericksons at $10.3 million (2007) and Above the Narrows at $6.91 million (2009) [6][7].

Because Christina’s World entered MoMA in 1949 and has remained in the collection, there is no public price discovery for this icon. Nevertheless, the combination of its canonical status in American art and the trajectory of Wyeth’s top tempera results provides context for its market significance: the painting functions as a museum-held anchor in Wyeth’s market narrative rather than a tradable asset, while comparable auction benchmarks outline the high end of valuations for major works by the artist [1][6][7].