Norman Rockwell shows us the view from the knothole. Most knotholes are nature made, but sometimes a trusty pocketknife or stone would help nature along when no one was looking. Unless some rat caretaker covered it up by nailing a piece of tin over the hole, you had a great viewing spot. Ever realistic, Rockwell’s wooden planks are so true to life, you can almost smell the wood. And ever playful, he “carved” his signature into the fence. For his onlookers, there is not much room to see what’s going on in the painting, but curious minds can see the symbol of another meaningful location in this famous piece of art, and they’d want to know the hidden meaning in the descriptions behind what is located there.
Norman Perceval Rockwell (1894–1978) was a 20th-century American author, painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades.
