GAY NORMAN ROCKWELL PAINTING
"Was he a repressed homosexual? We don’t really know. Ms. Solomon points to the homoerotic undertones in early paintings like “Sailor Dreaming of a Girlfriend” (1919), as well as two from 1958, “Before the Shot,” with its bare behind of an innocent young boy at the doctor’s office, and “The Runaway,” showing a beefy policeman seated next to a boy at a cafeteria counter. She uses the phrase “romantic crush” to describe Rockwell’s admiration for his fellow illustrator, J. C. Leyendecker, creator of the Arrow Collar Man. Rockwell once admitted, “Sex appeal seems to be something I just can’t catch on a piece of canvas.”
By JOHN WILMERDING
One Complicated Life, Illustrated
‘American Mirror,’ About Norman Rockwell,
by Deborah Solomon
New York Times October 31, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/books/american-mirror-about-norman-rockwell-by-deborah-solomon.html?ref=arts&_r=0
1 comment:
I know this was posted a long time ago, but I thought I would put in my two cents here. The man that you took out of the picture who was holding a picture of a woman, was actually my grandfather, who happened to be bunk mates with Norman Rockwell during WW1. My grandfather also happened to be a little bit girl crazy (it runs in the family), so I'm sure that Norman was trying to catch that part of his character in this particular sketch. My grandfather met his future wife, through my uncle Clarence who also served at the same time. They married the following year in 1919. It is likely that the other sailor is my uncle and the picture is of my grandmother (uncle Clarence's sister).
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