Art Critic

"Art imitates life and sometimes life imitates art." (Bruce Willis)

Norman Rockwell liked to incorporate a photograph or painting into his artwork, "bringing the inner artwork to life as it were."  Art Critic features a young artist, palette in one hand, magnifying glass in the other, examining an ornately framed painting at the art gallery.  The artist is studying the locket that the lady in the painting is wearing, intent on imitating the painter's technique.

To the artist's right is a larger canvas, also surrounded by a gilded frame, this one filled with three Dutch cavaliers who are unamused that he is examining the other painting.  However, the lady in the painting is smiling, enjoying the extra attention. The young artist was modelled by Rockwell's son, Jerry, while the woman in the painting was modelled by Rockwell's wife, Mary.

Art Critic first appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on April 16, 1955.

http://artseverydayliving.com/blog/2012/04/arts-everyday-living-norman-rockwell/

Window Washer

Jim Stafford took an art correspondence course with Norman Rockwell while in high school.  Five years later, while stationed at an army base in Massachusetts, he wrote a letter to the artist who invited him to his home.  When Stafford arrived, Rockwell "looked [him] up and down and said, 'You'll do.'"  Stafford wasn't sure what that meant.  It turned out Rockwell wanted him to pose as a model for his latest painting. (http://eyelevel.si.edu/2010/12/just-plain-folk-on-norman-rockwells-models.html)

Stafford would play a Manhattan window washer who comes upon an executive dictating a letter to his secretary.  The secretary looks up from her work to notice the window washer winking at her, oblivious to the executive.  Now she has likely missed a few sentences.  How will she explain to her boss what has transpired?

Rockwell paid his model $30 for three days work.  When Stafford tried to cash the pay cheque, the bank teller didn't believe it was a valid cheque, given the identity of the issuer.  Years later, he wished he had kept the cheque for posterity.

Window Washer first appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on September 17, 1960.  The original painting is now in the possession of movie maker Steven Spielberg.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/286471226268086514/