Young Girl Holding A Coke 

Norman Rockwell painted this scene, ‘Young Girl Holding A Coke,’ as an illustration, likely in the mid-20th century. Rockwell often depicted an idealised, but also sentimental vision of everyday American life, and here he captures a quiet moment of leisure. The image is filled with visual codes of that American dream: a young woman, dressed modestly, sits in a tree reading a book. Her refreshing Coca-Cola is the perfect complement to her reading. The ladder suggests the possibility of upward mobility, of climbing towards something better, while the rural setting evokes a sense of pastoral simplicity and escape from the industrialised world. Rockwell's art often served a public role, reinforcing particular social norms and values. But it is important to remember that he was also working within a specific cultural and institutional context, and his images were shaped by the expectations of his patrons and audience. By looking at the artist’s correspondence, and the publications for which he was working, we can gain a better understanding of the social conditions that shaped his work and what kind of public role it was intended to play.