POUR RAPPEL: Cette oeuvre est proposée en analyse pour l'histoire de l'art. L'analyse que nous avons faite ensemble ne sera pas suffisante. Si l'un d'entre vous souhaite la prendre, nous pourrons la travailler de façon individuelle et plus détaillée. 

Le cours suivant est un mélange de tout ce qui a été dit sur la conversation, toutes les idées ne sont pas forcément ordonnées de la façon la plus idéale mais le contenu est de qualité. 

Introduction

The document is a coloured painting entitled The problem we all live with and painted by Norman Rockwell in 1964. The painting is a naturalistic (realistic) painting and it was published in the magazine Look 

On the painting we can see/ the painting displays a little black girl (in the middle). She's wearing a white dress, hairband and white socks: white is the colour of purity, freedom and peace. The white dress is contrasting with her black skin and the girl represents innocence.

She's holding/carrying a book and a ruler (school supplies) so we suppose that she's going to school, probably a white school, for the first time. Some may say that the girl comes from a powerful family to be the first black girl to enter a white school, some other may say that she is worthy/she deserves her place there due to her school results. 

We notice US Marshal (federal officers) surrounding/encircling the black girl. They are wearing yellow armbands and badges on their chest. The officers are here to protect the girl from the people that are protesting. We can't see their heads because the focus is on the little girl and it reveals that they are dehumanised (no face = not human) 

Our perception here is the same as the audience/people witnessing. The white crowd is not visible as the viewer (you) is looking at the scene from the same point of view. 

The painting was made in 1964, the time when the Civil Rights Act was passed, guaranteeing rights to Black people (freespeech or right to vote like all US citizens) 

Ruby Bridges was allowed to go to a white school (William Frantz Elementary School) by the Supreme Court (in France: le conseil d'état/constitutionnel). As a reminder, segregation was the time when the Blacks were separated from the Whites in public spaces (transportation or schools for example) 

CONCLUSION 

Norman Rockwell wanted to show the change in the USA: white police officers escorting a black girl to school. The painting is iconic because the artist wanted to show that a black person and especially a girl could be treated equally. 

COMPARE THE PAINTING WITH THE PHOTOGRAPH