Existing comment:
Norman Rockwell
Murder in Mississippi, 1965
Unpublished illustration for Look
On June 21, 1964, civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were brutally murdered by the KKK in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Look commissioned Rockwell to create this illustration for an investigative article about the crime. The work is unusual for Rockwell. It is stark, monochromatic, and sparsely painted. Rockwell focuses on the plight of the activists. The klansmen are visible only as ominous shadows encroaching upon their victims from the right. Look decided to publish Rockwell's more impressionistic study for the painting rather than this finished work. |