The unusual painting many believe proves the time travel theory to be true, as it appears to feature something very unexpected
Art lovers have picked the painting apart (Image: Hajotthu / Wikimedia Commons)
It’s believed this 18th-century artwork, currently on display in a museum, is in fact proof time travel exists.
The woman in the picture seems to be holding something that was yet to even exist.
The painting was created by Ferdinand George Waldmüller and hangs proudly on the walls of the Neue Pinakothek museum in Munich, Germany, but its contents have received much attention.
It’s titled ‘The Expected One’ and captures a man hiding behind some trees, presenting a flower up ready as a woman walks by towards him, gripping what looks like a phone. Behind the woman is a beautiful countryside setting with hills and plenty of greenery. In front of her is a dried dirt path, edged by stones and plenty of vines and leaves growing beside it.
Down to the way she is holding the phone with two hands and thumbs, it could be a modern woman in the street today. This uncanny theory began around 2017 when art lovers spotted what looked like a smartphone device in the painting and shares their thoughts online.
George Waldmüller’s painting titled ‘The Expected One’ (Image: Hajotthu / Wikimedia Commons)
The artwork depicts a young woman engrossed in what we can only assume is a book while a man looks on, waiting to present her with a flower.
Peter Russel, an ex-local Glasgow government officer, spotted the uncanny resemblance when browsing the gallery and shared his thoughts. He told Vice: “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.”
“‘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 similarity was spotted in 2017 (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Many believe it best resembled an iPhone, or a touch screen smartphone, by the way that she’s holding it, glancing firmly down. Although what makes it all the more strange is that the tech giant Apple didn’t launch the iPhone until 2007.
Meanwhile, the very first smartphone with a physical keyboard to resemble the woman typing away was the Nokia 9000 Communicator, released in 1996.
What can only answer the conspiracy theory really is that the young man is instead shielding a book and reading as she walks. Although the book is unusually small, which lends itself to the theory of a phone, while pocketbooks were common for the era.
A similar occurrence happened when ex Apple boss Tim Cook claimed to have seen an iPhone in a 350 year old painting when visiting a museum in Amsterdam in 2016. The artwork shows a man holding an object that appears to be rectangular, closely resembling a smartphone, as a woman and child both look at it.
Both paintings have created widespread speculation about technology and time travel, while not yielding any real ‘proof’.