Norman Rockwell (American, 1894-1978) Study for Shuffleton's Barbershop, The Saturday Evening Post cover, April 29, 1950 Oil on photograph paper mounted on board 10-7/8 x 10-3/8 inches (27.6 x 26.4 cm) Inscribed on piece of original backing board: My best wishes to my / friend / Rob Shuffleton / sincerely / Norman Rockwell Property from an Important Palm Beach Collector PROVENANCE: The artist; Robert Shuffleton, East Arlington, Vermont, gift from the above; Private collection, granddaughter of the above, by descent; Sotheby's, New York, May 20, 2015, lot 18; Acquired by the present owner from the above. The present work is included in Norman Rockwell Museum's Digital Collection and online catalogue raisonné addenda files. It has been assigned the identification number C452ad1. Norman Rockwell's Study for Shuffleton's Barbershop offers a revealing view of the planning behind one of his most celebrated paintings. The finished composition appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on April 29, 1950, and is now in the collection of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which acquired it in 2018. In the present study, Rockwell establishes the relationships of color, light, and space that give the final painting its distinctive character. Although preparatory in purpose, the work is highly developed, combining a carefully organized composition with the visible, responsive brushwork of an artist testing his ideas. The study's provenance provides a particularly meaningful connection to its subject. Its ownership traces directly to the Shuffleton family, who sold the work at Sotheby's, where it was purchased by the present owner. This history links the painting to the people and place that inspired it. For a composition so firmly rooted in a particular community, that association adds an important personal dimension: the study preserves Rockwell's interpretation of the shop while also becoming part of the family's own history. The setting was a real barbershop on Maple Street in East Arlington, Vermont, where Rockwell and his family moved in 1939. The shop's ordinary furnishings supplied material for an unusually rich interior. Comic books, bottles, towels, a barber's chair, and a wood-burning stove establish a place shaped by daily use. These details make the scene convincing, but Rockwell gives them a larger role in the composition. Their placement guides the eye through the room, gradually revealing the small gathering beyond the open doorway. In the foreground, the unoccupied barber's chair and waiting area suggest that business has ended for the day. A black cat faces toward the back room, where three men are absorbed in making music. The figures occupy a relatively small part of the picture, yet they provide its narrative center. Rockwell builds interest through the distance between the viewer and the musicians. We encounter the shop before fully discovering its occupants, and that gradual recognition gives the scene much of its quiet appeal. Light is essential to this effect. Muted browns, grays, and cool blues define the front room, while the doorway opens onto an area of concentrated yellow light. Reflections and highlights carry that brightness across the threshold and onto the floorboards. The glowing stove supplies a smaller note of warmth, balancing the illuminated room without competing with it. In the study, these relationships remain easy to follow because the brushwork records broad decisions about color and tone. Rockwell makes light both a means of describing space and a way of directing attention. The arrangement also invites comparison with seventeenth-century Dutch interiors, particularly those of Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch. Like those artists, Rockwell uses an opening between rooms to create depth and to organize the viewer's experience of an interior. The connection extends beyond carefully observed household objects. Light establishes the relative importance of different spaces, while architectural divisions frame the human activity within them. Here, Rockwell adapts that tradition to a familiar American setting, finding pictorial complexity in a modest village business. Such apparent ease depended on extensive preparation. Rockwell developed his illustrations through a sequence of preliminary sketches, staged photographs, detailed drawings, and painted studies. Models, costumes, and props helped him establish convincing poses and relationships. He then brought the information together in a carefully worked charcoal drawing. His son Peter described the process in theatrical terms: "Each picture was like a little play, and my father was the director" (as quoted in "The Deadline," Norman Rockwell Museum Audio Tour, "Adult Audio Tour—Part 2). The finished image emerged from repeated decisions about what to include, emphasize, or change. Color studies formed a distinct stage in that process. Rockwell often had his charcoal drawings photographed and then painted directly over the resulting photographic prints. The photograph preserved the composition and its underlying tonal structure, allowing him to concentrate on the palette and distribution of light. This method connected drawing, photography, and painting within a single working surface. It also allowed greater freedom in the handling of paint: passages could remain broadly stated while still conveying the intended effect of the final illustration. The present work shows how thoroughly Rockwell had resolved Shuffleton's Barbershop before undertaking the final canvas. Subsequent adjustments included changes to objects on the shelves and the addition of the cracked windowpane in the foreground. That pane would strengthen the sense of looking into the shop from outside. Yet the essential arrangement—the darkened working space, the bright doorway, and the closely grouped musicians—was already established. The study, therefore, allows a close examination of the composition at a decisive point in its development. Its convincing detail also demonstrates Rockwell's ability to combine observation with invention. Local residents posed for the musicians, including the shop's owner, Robert Shuffleton, shown with his back to the viewer as the cellist. Their presence anchors the image in a real community, even as the gathering was constructed for the painting. This balance gives the study lasting interest. It records both a recognizable place and the deliberate artistic choices that Rockwell used to transform it into a story of companionship, shared interests, and life beyond the working day. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

The artist; Robert Shuffleton, East Arlington, Vermont, gift of the above; Private collection, granddaughter of the above, by descent; Sotheby’s, New York, May 20, 2015, lot 18; Acquired by the present owner from the above.

A few possible pindots of white surface accretions. Undulations in lower region of sheet, most noticeable under raking light. A few brush hairs included in paint layer. Light wear along edges of sheet. Under UV examination: varnish fluoresces unevenly.
Framed Dimensions 19.3272 X 18.75 Inches