1860 Painting Depicts Woman With iPhone?

Completed in 1860, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller’s “The Expected One,” appears to show a woman holding an iPhone while on a walk.
Art critics have said that the girl in the painting is not holding an iPhone, but is on her way to church while holding a small prayerbook.
Retired local Glasgow government officer, Peter Russell, first shed light on the painting and noted, “What strikes me most is how much a change in technology has changed the interpretation of the painting, and in a way has leveraged its entire context.”
Russel said, “The big change is that in 1850 or 1860, every single viewer would have identified the item that the girl is absorbed in as a hymnal or prayer book. Today, no one could fail to see the resemblance to the scene of a teenage girl absorbed in social media on their smartphone.”

Popular Now on Off The Press