Strictly a Sharpshooter by Norman Rockwell
Image by hyperion327
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
Strictly a Sharpshooter, 1941
Illustration for Strictly a Sharpshooter by D.D. Beauchamp, American Magazine, June 1941
Oil on canvas
In this story illustration for a fiction article by American author and screenwriter, D. D. Beauchamp, the girlfriend of a young boxer encourages him to fight a match against a seasoned boxer for the promise of big winnings. Portrayed in the story as more interested in money than love, she reveals her true colors when her beau loses the fight, and she publicly rejects him. Living in Vermont, a long distance from the urban environments that inspired many of his illustrations, Rockwell often traveled to find the right settings for his narratives. In this case, he visited a boxing club at New York’s Columbus Circle and studied the smoke-filled atmosphere and the people who frequented it. He relied on friends and neighbors to pose for the piece with the exception of the young boxer on the left, who was a professional model. Elizabeth Schaeffer, illustrator Mead Schaeffer’s wife, posed for the character of the young boxer’s girlfriend.
This illustration appeared as a double page spread in the magazine’s interior, a departure for Rockwell, who regularly painted vertical covers. He said that the relationship between picture proportion and subject matter was always important in his work. The strong parallel lines of the ropes and floor accentuate the horizontal format of this scene.
(From the Norman Rockwell Museum)
