The Music Man

Norman Rockwell made this painting called The Music Man with oil on canvas, but the date is unknown. There’s something so funny about the way Rockwell has rendered this young musician’s face, belting out a tune for an unimpressed audience. I mean, look at the way he’s painted the freckles, like constellations on the boy’s skin. It’s all about the details in Rockwell’s work, isn’t it? I keep coming back to that dog, though. He’s so earnest, head tilted back, eyes wide, hanging on every note. Maybe he’s the only true fan in the room. And the little girl? She has her hands clamped over her ears. Rockwell is such a master of narrative, and it’s all done with the placement of figures in the composition. I’m thinking of someone like David Hockney; he also tells stories with the relationships of the figures in his paintings, but with so much more space and strangeness. In the end, it’s a conversation, this art thing.