Bud's Favoite Rockwell: "The Scoutmaster"

Bud, this one's for you!

It is no secret that Wood Badge Backup Course Director Harry (Bud) Dorr's favorite Norman Rockwell painting is "The Scoutmaster," an iconic Scouting figure he sometimes equates to Michelangelo's statue of David. (Personally, the WB Scribbler can't see the comparison because he gets thrown off by the fact that David, posed in all his marble family-jeweled glory, is wearing no clothes. The Scribbler's tastes in Scoutmaster heros tend to run more toward the fully-accoutered Fred McMurry in the movie "Follow Me Boys.")

Looking for inspiration for a painting about the all important adult Scoutmaster, Rockwell attended the Third National Scout Jamboree in 1953. The result was this classic work, introduced as a Brown & Biglelow calendar selection in 1956, of a Scoutmaster tending the fire as his charges slept peacefully in their tents. The starry blue of the night sky and the dry rocky soil suggest a remote and secluded location but was more likely a sandy patch of landscape at the National Jamboree.

Here's how one of Rockwell's biographers describes the scene:

"The man, muscular and taunt, stands uniformed but he is not militaristic, a policeman of a hunter; he carries no weapon on his person or badge of office. No threats are presented, yet the man stands watch nonetheless, his modestly ringed hand resting on his hip, his stick raking the coals as a gentle wisp of smoke flutters in the nighttime air. The man's face is directed off-canvas, we know not at what, yet his expression reveals no tension; his gaze seems more inward than outward. By the different colored hair of the boys, we can see that they are not his, yet he watches over them as if they were his own.

The small tripod stands over the fire, lashed together with line whose unravelled ends hang out; these are the knots seemingly tied by the hands of a novice. An aluminum pot hangs off the tripod, a coffee pot rests nearby and rocks and small stumps ring the faint fire; hunger or want is of no concern in this scene. Instead, Rockwell presents an image of quiet calm; of a man standing silently as the entrusted leader of future men."

The Scribbler does admire Rockwell's painting for its technical mastery. The pose of the man looks contemplative, the drape of the uniform and gentle billowing of the neckerchief reveals an artist who fully understands how body, cloth, and atmosphere interact with one another. We also admire this painting for its thematic presentation; even if we knew nothing about the mission and history of the Boy Scouts, we can immediately see that Rockwell is depicting a man dedicated to the boys in his care and that this man is the product of specific values and achievements.

--WB Scribbler (Thanks again, Bud, for the moniker!)
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"The Scoutmaster" is Everywhere

Since 1956, Norman Rockwell's "The Scoutmaster" has appeared on the cover of the 5th Edition of the Scoutmaster's Handbook (1959-1972) (curiously minus the background stars), on Boys' Life covers, and the subject of numerous prints, posters and collectors' plates, ceramic figurines and porcelain statues, camporee patches, and even has appeared on a Liberian stamp. Scoutstuff.org sells a "The Scoutmaster"-themed woven tapestry afghan for $64.99 ; the Honor Bookstore sells a framed giclee print online for $99.95 but the original commemorative print from the Brown & Bigelow edition distributed by BSA in the 1960s and 1970s is still available for around $40.00. The original painting done for the 1956 Brown & Bigelow calendar and owned by the Boy Scouts of America hangs in the National Scout Museum in Irving, Texas.

--WB Scribbler
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Another "The Scoutmaster" Connection

In 2005, the Seattle Mariners' head honcho Howard Lincoln related a story connected to the famous Rockwell painting. Lincoln took time off during that season's spring training to catch up with BSA's National Endowment Art Tour at Chateau Ste. Michelle--where some Norman Rockwell paintings were on display. The most famous of the paintings was "The Scoutmaster," and Lincoln had a personal connection to it. Little Howard's 12-year-old face could be seen clearly in the painting, which has been viewed by millions of people over the years, mostly at the National Scout Museum when it is not on tour.

Rewind back to 1954 at a Boy Scout Jamboree in Irvine, California. Fifty-thousand Scouts were packed over every inch of land. "My scoutmaster Del Anderson told me I was going to be in a Boy Scout calendar along with five other Scouts. We went out and pitched a tent and built a fire in broad daylight. Norman Rockwell was there. He explained the scene was nighttime, a scoutmaster standing by the tent, and we would all be asleep. It was 90 degrees in the shade in the middle of the day." Rockwell took photographs that day, and painting from the pictures, turned day into night, complete with stars.

A year later Lincoln got a letter and $25 from the painter, asking him to sign a release. The calendar came out in 1956. Lincoln, who later became an Eagle Scout and more, is positioned to the immediate right of the campfire. He faced forward because he knew that his mother would not be happy unless his face could be seen.

--from a Puget Sound Business Journal article March 4, 2005.

--WB Scribbler again

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