Fruit of the Vine 1930

Norman Rockwell made "Fruit of the Vine" with oil on canvas, around 1930. Rockwell’s warm, figurative style feels intimate, and like a staged scene. The old lady is watching the younger woman unwrap something, maybe sweets, or is it soap? I imagine him working on this, carefully placing each object, each expression. I wonder if he struggled with how to arrange the hands of the old woman to communicate her emotions. The painting is pretty tight and controlled. Nothing is out of place; the colors are muted and natural. But the way the light falls on their faces, so gentle, suggests a moment of simple human connection. This realism of Rockwell reminds me of Lucian Freud, but with a very different vibe. Both explored the human figure. But with the humanity there is something very different in the approach. It is really an ongoing conversation between artists across time, inspiring each other's creativity. And that is something special.