Norman Rockwell was born in New York City, and he is one of America’s most renowned artists. He painted mainly in the genre of American realism and was hired on at The Saturday Evening Post (a famous American magazine company in New York). He published here for over 47 years, and he created 323 original covers. In 1953, Norman Rockwell published a famous oil painting titled, “The Young Lady with the Shiner”. By looking at this oil painting, one can see contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity working together. This is important because the reader can notice why the girl in the painting is so captivating through the dissection of these visual elements.

First, Norman Rockwell uses contrast throughout the painting to make the black eye on the girl stand out. He strategically scatters three main colors in the painting including: blues, greens, and reds. In the painting, the first thing that comes to mind is the black eye. Painted with blues and greens, the black eye really shines in contrast with the three main colors. When the audience looks around the painting, they see blues on the bulletin board, on the principal’s tie, and on the assistant’s blue-green shirt. He uses greens in the tiling on the girl’s skirt, on the floor, on the filing cabinet, and on the bulletin board. He also uses shades of red in the girl’s hair, ribbon, skirt, and shoes. His use of blues, greens, and reds draw attention to and intensify the black eye. Since the black eye is one of the main features that defines this painting, the reader’s attention is drawn to the eye because the artist’s use of contrast.

Secondly, Norman Rockwell repeatedly paints rectangles after rectangles, and the use of simple shapes directs the reader’s attention back to the subject at hand, the girl. When looking at the work, the audience can see rectangles in the tiles on the floor, the filing cabinet, the bench, the bulletin board, and the papers. The rectangles in the context provide a lot of space for thinking because they lack details, and they traverse their way through the image. If there were interesting shapes on the wall, floor, and background, the shapes would be working against the artist. He wants the reader to look at the girl, and he wants them to speculate and ask questions such as why does she have a black eye? Why is she smiling? Why is she wearing what she is wearing? In order to fulfill this, he places these simple rectangles far and wide making the reader’s attention come back to the girl. 

Thirdly, the way Norman Rockwell uses alignment makes the reader look straight at the girl because this strategy makes her the center of everything. He paints her in the very center of the image, which is in the natural line of sight. If the girl were placed anywhere else other than the center of the photo, she would become a minor subject instead of the major subject she is now. Not only is she the center of attention, but she also occupies the most space compared to anything else in the work. She is placed closer to the foreground, so she appears larger than her surroundings. All of these alignment techniques Rockwell uses makes the reader gaze upon the young girl and think about why they can’t look away. This ultimately, makes the reader directly focus on the young girl.

Lastly, Norman Rockwell carefully chooses what to place in proximity to the young school girl because ultimately he wants the audience thinking about her background on a deeper level. Around the girl, there is a bulletin board, a filing cabinet, and a principal’s office. These three things have one thing in common, and that is they do not contain as many details as the girl. When inspecting the image, the reader keeps looking back at the girl. The reasoning is that everything in proximity is less detailed. The girl has crazy hair, a black eye, a mischievous smile, scrawny arms, awkward tube socks, untied shoes, and bruises on her knees. The girl has more details than her surroundings, and this makes the reader stare at the girl and wonder where she came from and why she appears the way she does. The first time someone sees this painting they might not notice a dangling key, a child’s drawing, a star, and a letter all on the bulletin board. This is not their fault because Rockwell is a genius in the way he uses proximity to keep every bit of attention on the young girl. 

When looking at “The Young Lady with the Shiner”, one can see contrast through the colors, repetition through the rectangles, alignment through the placement of the girl, and proximity through her surroundings all working together. This is important because the reader is aware that the girl is interesting by picking apart its visual aspects this can make the reader feel a connection and feel sympathy for the girl. Rockwell uses blues, greens, and reds to really make the black eye shine. He also uses repetition with simple shapes specifically rectangles, so that we do not get distracted from studying the young girl. He paints the girl as the center of the whole image, so that she occupies the most space and this is the main focal point. Lastly, Rockwell places minor subjects with little detail in the lady’s proximity, so that she always has the attention of the audience. These four visual elements are just a few of the reasons why “The Young Lady with the Shiner” is a masterpiece. 
