Walking to Church 1953

Norman Rockwell, painted this picture, Walking to Church, with oil on canvas, but when, exactly? I get the sense this was a kind of everyday scene, a world that maybe Rockwell knew well, and I am drawn in by the earthy colors of the brickwork. The texture is built up in layers, almost like an illustration or a scene built on a stage, and in some parts you can almost see the brushstrokes, especially in the buildings, which really bring the scene to life. My eye keeps coming back to the sign for the Silver Slipper Grill, it is such a great little detail. It reminds me of Edward Hopper, an artist who was a few years older than Rockwell. Like Hopper, Rockwell knew how to capture the feeling of a specific time and place, a kind of American reality, but always with a sense of poetry. It is like they were speaking the same language, but with different accents.