Hidden detail in 150 year old ‘time traveller’ painting shows woman on an iPhone

A 150-year-old painting appears to show a 'time traveller' playing with an iPhone—but art critics have insisted it's nothing of the kind.

'The Expected One' by artist Ferdinand George Waldmüller shows a young woman walking through the countryside with her eyes glued to a square object in her hands, as a man waits to give her a flower.

Eagled-eyed art fans say it looks like she's staring at an iPhone or other smartphone, despite the lack of electricity in 1860.

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However, experts have insisted that the girl in the painting isn't using an iPhone, but instead reading a prayer book.

The painting is housed in a museum in Munich called the Neue Pinakothek, housing hundreds of paintings from the 18th and 19th century.

The man who first spotted the detail, Peter Russell, 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.

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.

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"Today, no one could fail to see the resemblance to the scene of a teenage girl absorbed in social media on their smartphone."

It's not clear what apps she would be able to use even if she was on an iPhone, as nobody else had TikTok or Tinder back then.

This isn't the first time someone has supposedly spotted an iPhone in an old painting. In 2016, Apple boss Tim Cook claimed he spotted an iPhone in a 17th century painting in Amsterdam.

He told a conference: "I always thought I knew when the iPhone was invented, but now I'm not so sure anymore."

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