Portrait Of Richard Sloan 1973

Norman Rockwell painted this portrait of Richard Sloan in oil, and look at the layering of color! He’s built up Sloan’s face with these strokes of blush and grey, and that gives him this incredible presence, like he's right there. The paint is applied with a touch that feels both precise and intuitive. You can almost feel the give and take, the back-and-forth between what Rockwell saw and how he felt about it. I keep coming back to the pocket detail, that signature with the brushes sticking out; that feels so personal and immediate. It's like a little nod to all the other artists who came before him, all those brushstrokes laid down in the service of seeing. I think you can feel the echoes of someone like Sargent here, but with a more everyday touch. It’s less about perfection and more about getting something real down on canvas.