The Connoisseur, 1962 Saturday Evening Post Cover, January 13th 1962 Indianapolis, IN, The Curtis Publishing

Company

An image that is not so simple

WHY The connoisseur: this was probably the last really memorable cover that Rockwell painted for the Post. Its effectiveness lies largely in the contrast between the dapper clothes of the connoisseur and the splashed pigment of the action painting. The painting is in the style of Jackson Pollock but was in fact painted by Rockwell himself. Under an assumed name he entered in a local art show it won first prize. The Connoisseur seams to be a very simple image: a man stands in the foreground and in the background there is a painting. In realty this painting is maybe the more complex one of Norman Rockwell career. IS THE CONNOISSEUR THE AFFIRMATION OF A TRUE ARTIST?

1 The Pleasing style

What is most satisfying about Rockwells career taken as a whole is the way he evolved eminently from an eminently pleasing and salvable though conventional into a great original: More imaginative in the area of design Develop fully as a colorist Learn from photography Master the illusion of spontaneity Ability to evoke character with few seemingly casual strokes of the paintbrush Use the telling details A canvas with a flash of brilliance to gave fair warning of what he was capable of Particularize not only the protagonist of his little dramas but also the setting that framed their existence Detailed portraits Subtle mannerism: curious use of impasto

2 The revolutionary and complex elements This is the only painting were Norman Rockwell experienced modern art and expressionism. When he went to Paris in 1923 because of an inspiration and selfconfidence lack, he certainly tried a more modern style but the Evening Post Direction ask him to give up.

As we seen with Josette with The Triple self Portrait 1960 for the Saturday evening post oil painting Stockbridge MA the Norman Rockwell museum13th February 1960: Rockwell wanted to belong to the great western painter tradition of Durer, Rembrandt, Picasso and Van Gogh, without false modesty. Journalist were always asking Rockwell his opinion on contemporary art as if he was old-fashioned and conformist and would find it awful. Therefore they were astonished to discover that he was not only admiring the modern painters but also fascinated by them from Picasso to Pollock. The connoisseur is presenting a man in a grey not really young but certainly serious gazing carefully at a dripping painting of Jackson Pollock showed in a museum. To paint this painting in the painting a mise en abyme, Rockwell needed the help of the house workers on the corner thanks to him he painted a Jackson Pollock plagiary and celebrated the event with a series of photo. Moreover he was following painting classes with the Stockbridge painters to try more free styles than his own technique created -more than a halfcentury before- was allowing. That was the moment when he was taken again by his ambition to paint great paintings because his relation ship was not so evident with the post It is difficult to imagine how Rockwell could surpass paintings like Shuffletons barber shop or Saying Grace. And yet It seams that he associated to these great painting a kind of universal message . The Golden Rule of 1931 turns backs to this universal idea. He is looking for meaningful subject. It is the first time he is painting with his consciousness after years of ostracism.

3 One of the first Great painting

The covers of the post and the strength of Norman Rockwell contribution to that publication projected situation that were independent of the specific content of the issue itself The image mirrored the yearning of the readership and described the magazine by reflecting a profile of its readers They were self-contained image that projected the aspiration inherent in American dream Magazines no longer reached families who lingered over their content in the same way Magazines covers now completed with one another to win readers away from the more appealing medium of television. If the changing trends in magazine publishing disappointed him other changing fashion were even more disturbing Illustrators regarded as popular heroes until World War II had declined in influence By the 1950s American cultural heroes being celebrated were the abstract expressionist Illustrators were considered low brow by high brow standards An article written by Wright Morris in the Atlantic Monthly was critical of Norman Rockwell for destroying the taste of American people. For the first time in his career Norman Rockwell was placed on the defensive by the very medium of communication that once exalted him and it hurt. The irony contained in that painting is obvious The Connoisseur is a very conformist bourgeois totally surrounded by Pollocks action painting. Art is clearly stronger than him : powerful, colourful and violent. A strong and subtle critic is include in this first Great painting announcing the others.