• 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.”

Tagged: Media