Waiting for the Art Editor c. 1970

Norman Rockwell made this painting with oils, depicting a nervous young artist waiting with his portfolio to see an art editor. Look at the guy on the right, with the cane, and the pin-stripe suit: he’s clearly the bigshot, and he is definitely not a painter! I like to think about what Rockwell, who made his name illustrating for popular magazines, thought about the kind of artist waiting to be seen in a gallery office. This painting is so full of “waiting” and awkwardness! What must it have been like to be the nervous young artist? How does one prepare to show one's work? How does that portfolio feel when it's sitting on your lap? I think it’s an interesting glimpse into the art world, painted from the outside in. Rockwell might not have been a gallery artist, but he was for sure a canny observer of human nature.