Triple Self-Portrait

Triple Self-Portrait is an oil painting on canvas measuring 34.5 by 44.5 inches (88 cm × 113 cm).[2] Set in a white void, it depicts a rear-view Rockwell sitting at an easel producing a self-portrait. A gold-framed mirror topped with an eagle is set up to the left on a chair; Rockwell can be seen in its reflection as a thin and bespectacled man.[3] On the chair in front of the mirror sits a glass of Coca-Cola and an open book.[4]

On the canvas in front of the illustrator is an unfinished sketch of himself in his idealized art style.[5] On the right side of the canvas Rockwell pinned self-portraits by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, and Picasso.[6] A piece of paper with sketches sits on the left. In total, there are seven self-portraits depicted in the work.[3]

According to Michele Bogart, the painting shows that Rockwell saw himself as split between an artist and an illustrator.[7] According to Deborah Solomon, by not painting his eyes in the reflection, Rockwell shows that he rejects "the popular myth of artists as heroic seers".[4] Further, she sees the work as Rockwell's "manifesto" by depicting the way American Realism is divorced from the reality found in a mirror.[4] Alexander R. Galloway disagrees with Solomon's interpretation and reads the painting as avoiding questions about how artists build meaning instead of answering them.[8]