An Original Sketch By Norman Rockwell of The Dog With a Can Tied to Its Tail, Which He Used to Represent Himself

Norman Rockwell captured the essence of life in idyllic America like few other artists before or since.  Evocative of simpler and more innocent times, Rockwell produced some of the most iconic 20th-century artworks and defined the way we perceive a certain period in American culture.

For Rockwell, dogs were important elements of both his artwork and his personal life. In his reference files, Rockwell kept hundreds of photographs, negatives, and magazine clippings of dogs for use in his art. “Mutts,” the heading for file folders of such images, points to Rockwell’s personal interest in canines.

In the 1920s, Norman Rockwell began to use his caricature of a scruffy mutt with a can tied to its tail as a stand-in for himself. For his caricature, Rockwell used a version of the dog Patsy he’d created for use on a variety of Country Gentleman magazine cover illustrations. These cover illustrations included some of his other repeated characters.

A beleaguered looking dog was Rockwell’s focus when he created an alter-ego image for himself. The image of the tin can tied to the dog’s tail implies a different story. As Rockwell clearly shows in the dog’s dismayed expression, having a tin can tied to your tail means that something (a story, a responsibility, or a situation) is chasing you from behind or is a reference to you of which you cannot ever be rid. It makes this dog a benighted figure constantly being chased by a noisy tin can.

Rockwell, though a New Yorker, is associated today with Stockbridge, Mass., the town in the Berkshires where he settled in his later years. Stockbridge was the last place he lived, and it is the home of the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Typed Letter Signed, on his letterhead, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, April 21, 1970, to Mr. Dehr. Along with his reply that he will be away and unavailable to get together, Rockwell has sketched one of his iconic dogs below his signature, a particularly playful one depicting the dog dragging a tin can on a string by its tail. “Thanks for your pleasant and newsy letter. I am waiting to go on an assignment, and I just don’t know when it is, so I don’t think you had better plan to stop by. I wish I could see you but I just don’t know where I will be. Thank you again for your interest in writing. Cordially, Norman Rockwell.”

An increasingly uncommon original sketch of Rockwell, showing the artist’s whimsical side. It is the first we have had in over a decade.