Fact Check: Is The Girl In A 162-Year-Old Painting Holding iPhone?
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| "The Expected One" picture-Fact check: Is she holding an iPhone? |
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"The Expected One" picture painted by Austrian painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller stirred the debate on the Internet.
The central image of the painting is a woman looking at an item in her hand, walking on a small trail, surrounded by beautiful scenery. The girl was walking, in front of her was a man holding a flower hidden behind the trees as if he wanted to give it to the girl. The painting is exhibited at Neue Pinakothek museum in Munich, Germany.
Through the lens of the 21st century’s netizens, they believe that the small rectangular object that the woman is holding in her hands is an iPhone.
When was the picture painted?
This Spooky Painting was painted more than 100 years before the first smartphone was invented.
It was painted by Austrian painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller in 1860.
What was first iPhone released?
On June 29, 2007, Apple co-founder and late CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone. He called it "an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator," all in one. The first iPhone laid the foundation for the modern smartphone, ushering in the era in which pocket-sized computers that can answer any question with the push of a button became the norm. Now, more than 5 billion people around the world use mobile services, according to estimates from GSMA Intelligence.
Fact check: Does bizarre "time travel" theory exist? Is the girl really holding an iPhone?
According to art critics, that’s an illusion.
The woman is said to be reading a prayer book during her stroll rather than browsing social media.
“The girl in this Waldmüller painting is not playing with her new iPhone X, but is off to church holding a little prayer book in her hands,” Gerald Weinpolter, CEO of the art agency austrian-paintings.at, told Motherboard.
There’s a simple explanation to the illusion
Peter Russell, a retired local Glasgow Government officer told Motherboard: "What strikes me most is how much a change in technology has chance the interpretation of the painting, and in a way has leveraged its entire context."
He added: "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."
The fact is that with the advancement in technology our way of perceiving things has changed now. In this modern era, we are surrounded by thousands of things that revolve around technology. So, that’s the reason why this painting is convincing many people of this era to think that the woman in that picture is holding phone a hundred years before they were even invented.
In this case it seems to be the interpretation evolving with modern times since the scene does bear an eerie resemblance to people walking with their heads down, engrossed in their smartphones.
"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," Russell said.
Still, the internet did not miss an opportunity to try and guess which smartphone the girl in the painting was allegedly holding. Not surprisingly, most people think it’s one of the indestructible Nokias.
| An editor of Vice wrote: In “The Expected One,” the woman’s body language certainly makes it appear as if she’s looking at a phone, to the degree you can imagine her being labeled just another “distracted walker” exhibiting signs of so-called “text neck” if she were walking down the street in 2017. And as a particularly time travel-obsessed acquaintance of mine recently pointed out to me after I showed them the original (undoctored) version of the painting, the woman’s face seems lit up from below as if washed in screen glow. The shadowing all seems cast forward save her chin, lips, and cheeks, which almost appear brighter than one might think they would considering Waldmüller’s brushstrokes otherwise have her backlit. And of course, in 1860 there was no smartphone, let alone the iPhone, or was this a foreshadowing of the future. That's what caused the public uproar. |
Another version on Pinterest
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The picture looks eerily like a woman who is lost in her cell phone screen. Interestingly, a doctored version of the painting exists on Pinterest, which shows the girl’s face illuminated by the glow of the iPhone screen.
On Reddit, people gave lots of comments on the doctored version:
Image has been edited. Doesn't look like she's holding a glowing phone in the original.
The light has been added to this image. She is actually holding a takeaway coffee.
| Most people on social media wanted to believe that the girl had a phone in her hand. Here's what they said: "What a silly post, anyone can tell that that's a Samsung." "Taking selfies even back then, smh." "No, that's a Nokia 3310." "Even if she were a time traveler, that iPhone wouldn't work without cell towers or Wifi." "Amazing how we've lost touch with our traditions that we can’t even tell what an average person was doing before cell phones." "It's a breviary - a small prayerbook with rosary beads hanging from them." |
Same illusion
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It's not the first time modern technology has supposedly been spotted in a centuries-old painting.
Apple boss Tim Cook claimed he had noticed an iPhone in a piece of artwork during a visit to a museum in Amsterdam.
A man can be seen clutching a rectangular object while a woman, child and dog all take a look at it in the 350-year-old painting.
Cook earlier told a conference: "I always thought I knew when the iPhone was invented, but now I'm not so sure anymore."
Conclusion
The image of a girl sticking her eyes on something in her hands reminds us young generation nowasays with smartphones. They use smartphones everywhere: on the street, at office, in the elevator, while they are shopping, lying or eating.
In this modern time when everyone sticks to smartphones all day long, it's easy for us to have illusion on everything which looks like the phones in our hands. But sadly the muse in the picture is not a time traveller.
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