By Shari Randall
Traveling through the Berkshires after a holiday visit to
upstate New York was a great excuse to stop in charming Stockbridge,
Massachusetts, to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum.
Rockwell, who preferred the term “illustrator” to “painter,”
was a meticulous artist who designed his scenes, chose and posed his models,
photographed them, and only when satisfied with the photos, used them to guide
the final painting of his artwork. This painstaking process produced some of
the best loved images of all time. Exhibits of his iconic Four Freedoms raised
over a million dollars in war bonds during World War II, a stunning amount for
the time. His art appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post 323 times. His work, considered sentimental
or false by some critics, is undergoing a reappraisal and is hotly collected by
tastemakers such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. An exhibit of his work
at the Smithsonian broke records.
That’s why it was so shocking to hear about the Rockwell
cover the Saturday Evening Post
rejected, the work that, despite its celebrity firepower, failed to make the
cut and was never published.
In 1948, Rockwell did a drawing he called Murder Mystery, or Who-Dun-It. Rockwell’s
intent was to present a classic drawing room murder mystery that the viewer
would solve from the clues in the picture. Instead of choosing his subjects
from his friends and neighbors as was his custom, Rockwell went Hollywood. He
approached Ethel Barrymore to portray the lady of the manor; Linda Darnell as a
glamorous actress; Boris Karloff as the chef; Loretta Young as the maid; Clifton
Webb as the butler; Richard Widmark as a disreputable gentleman with a riding
crop; and Lassie as, well, Lassie. Van Johnson plays The Body, with only his
legs and feet portrayed, splayed on the carpet.
Rockwell said, “I’d show a murdered man surrounded by
his friends and relatives, one of whom had done him in. The clues to the
solution would be present in the picture and Post readers would be asked to
solve the crime.”
Here’s a link to the museum image and here’s my photo. The
clues are hidden in the details, so enlarge away! http://collection.nrm.org/search.do?id=630050&db=object&view=full
 |
| photo by the author |
Standing in front of the painting,
tucked away in a side gallery, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the quality
of the work. The mystery? That was another thing. A Boy Scout standing next to
me pondered the painting for a good five minutes. He sighed. And tilted his
head to look closer. And sighed again.
I understood how he felt. I thought
one solution was obvious, but, could see a case for others. A man wearing a
Bruins sweatshirt joined us in front of Murder
Mystery and peered close at the work. We exchanged glances and guesses.
We all chose a different suspect.
That was the problem. The Saturday
Evening Post agreed with me and the Boy Scout and the Bruins fan. After
Rockwell presented Murder Mystery to
the editorial board of The Saturday
Evening Post, the Post test-drove
it with staff. The work was rejected, the Post
editors explained, because not one staffer came within “miles of the correct
answer.” I have a feeling that mystery readers may do better than the staff of
the 1948 Saturday Evening Post but
still, the solution is not clear cut.
So dear readers, take a look.
Who-Dun-It? Put your guesses in the comments and I’ll check in later with
the correct answer. Well, with the artist’s answer. Your solution may vary.
