Oh boy, it's Pop with a new Plymouth 1951

Norman Rockwell, sometime in the middle of the last century, probably used oil on canvas to make this image “Oh boy, it's Pop with a new Plymouth.” Look at that moment when the shiny new car pulls up; it's all there on those faces, right? The anticipation, the glee, the sheer disbelief of the little boy on the right. Rockwell's got a real knack for capturing these fleeting expressions, like the kid's wide-eyed astonishment, painted with such smooth, almost airbrushed surfaces. It feels like looking at an ad, but it's so full of human feeling, it melts into nostalgia. Check out the wreath and the snowy branches outside; they're much looser, like a quick sketch compared to the family's tightly rendered faces. That contrast, I think, it's what makes Rockwell so interesting: the slickness versus the hint of a messy hand. Sort of like how Fairfield Porter mixed realism and abstraction, only Rockwell does it with a wink and a nod to commercial art. It's a whole mood, not just a picture.