“Pipe and Bowl Sign Painter” is a genre painting by Norman Rockwell, completed in 1926 using oil on canvas. The artwork, representative of the Regionalism movement, is housed in a private collection.
The artwork features an intricately detailed scene of an artist meticulously painting a sign for “Ye Pipe & Bowl Tavern.” The artist, who is garbed in 18th-century attire, is portrayed with a concentrated expression, seated on a stool and surrounded by his tools and materials. His focused attention on the sign, along with the careful depiction of the sign’s subject – a gentleman’s face – underscores Rockwell’s characteristic attention to detail and narrative storytelling. The overall composition captures a moment of artistic creation, rendered with vivid realism and human interest, typical of Rockwell’s work.
