After the Prom, 1957

"The small-town consanguinity of the group is emphasized by the fact that all four figures in the painting bear a vague resemblance to one another... Everyone in the picture is smiling the same small smile, and we, as beholders at once inside and outside this cozy scene, are invited to smile as well. We are inside the store but not up at the counter- a part of the society but not a part of the community- but the open picture plane still welcomes us... The clustered burst of white in the center of Rockwell's painting, created by the young woman's dress, the boy's jacket, and the soda jerk's hat and shirt, constitute our gardenia; we stand in the same relationship to that white blossom of tactile paint as the soda jerk does to the young woman's corsage." -Dave Hickey, from Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People, 1999

After the Prom, Norman Rockwell, 1957. Oil on canvas, 31" x 29". Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, May 25, 1957. Private collection.

Reference photos for After the Prom by Louie Lamone, 1957.