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The Jury Room by Norman Rockwell
Outils de communication et documentaire
Université de Tours
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This painting, by Norman Rockwell, called The Jury Room w a s m a d e i n 1 9 5 9 a n d w a s originally the cover of the magazine T h e S a t u rd a y E v e n i n g P o s t published February 14, 1959. This scene takes place in a jury room during the debate between the jury to agree on a verdict after a hearing. But to what extent is this work a representation of the American society of that time? To answer this question, we will first describe this painting and then, we will analyze The Jury Room, Norman Rockwell, 1959 the meaning behind it.
The setting of this scene is a jury room where the door in the right hand corner seems locked. The wall and the door are red and we have a very stuffy atmosphere because of the smoke coming out of the cigarettes. The floor and the table are very messy, we can see a lot of crumpled paper sheets, pencils and cigarette ends. And all around the table, there are the jurors crowding the desk. Some are sitting, others are standing but what jumps out at us is the only woman in the room, sitting in the middle of all the men. Every man is looking at her and one of them seems to be trying to convince her. Only one man has a passive attitude and is sleeping on his chair. Meanwhile the men seem assured and in control of the situation, the only woman looks oppressed and ill at ease.
The background of this painting, with the smoke, the red door and wall and the locked door, remind us of the burden that the jury has to bear because the jurors have to decide the destiny of someone. The smoke could also be a reference to Rockwell's life. Indeed, in some of his paintings we can find smoke that actually refers to the fire that burnt his studio some years earlier. Then, if we look at the jurors, we notice that we can only find white people and just one woman. We could think that this choice is meaningless but here, the subject of this painting is actually what we can’t see in the painting. Indeed, at that time, only white men and very few women could be jurors. African American people or
Asian people for example couldn’t be part of a jury and so couldn’t be represented.
To conclude, this painting denounces the lack of diversity in juries but also the inequalities and the segregation existing in American society at that time. It is also a representation of the place of women in society and of how they are seen and considered by men.
Juliette CHASSAIN
The Jury Room by Norman Rockwell
Matière: Outils de communication et documentaire
Université: Université de Tours
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