The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., recently opened a new exhibit entitled “Telling Stories:  Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.”*  Rockwell’s art speaks to filmmakers Lucas and Spielberg for its ability to tell a story.  Rockwell’s storytelling can also speak to lawyers seeking to use narrative in persuasive brief writing.   

The exhibit begins with a series of photographs that Rockwell used when selecting props in Back to Civvies, a painting about a soldier returning home and trying on his old (and now too-small) civilian clothes in front of his dresser mirror.  The photos show how Rockwell arranged real-life props such as a bomber model and poster, college pennant, and uniform jacket with campaign ribbons to depict the pilot’s life before leaving for World War II and after coming home.    

Rockwell found details from his life, often things appeared from his work room or house in his paintings.  Rockwell painted his own sofa in Let Nothing You Dismay, and he painted a ship model in The Toy Maker that can be seen hanging on the wall of his studio in a photo taken almost forty years after the painting.   Those details convey precision, realism, and give his stories credibility.  We can relate to these details: they present us with cultural and historical associations, and they evoke our emotions.

Even his titles convey much.