To modern eyes the subject of this painting is quite obvious, it's simply a young woman sending a text on her cell phone. There's only one problem, this painting was created back in 1860 a good 130 years before the first smartphone was ever available.
So what gives? Was Austrian painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller's work 'The Expected One' based on some sort of vision of the future the painter saw or could it be that the artist was simply trying to subtly let the observer in on the fact that he had indeed traveled to the future and back?
The truth isn't actually so strange after all. The object in the young woman's hands that she is looking so reverently at is simply a prayer book.
The fact that modern observers often mistake the book for a cell phone really speaks volumes about how our society has changed in nearly 200 years. In 1860 a young woman was interested in reading the word of God while she strolls from place to place. Had the painting been created today the young woman would undoubtedly be portrayed as staring into her phone either sending a text or watching a funny cat video.
We have indeed evolved into a race of cell phone obsessed zombies.
I only wonder what the world would be like if we only put down our phones and picked up a Bible instead? Wouldn't it be refreshing to see a young woman walking about immersed in literary work about faith instead of checking her Instagram?
To be honest, it would be encouraging just to see people reading books of any kind.
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