April Fool: Fishing - Norman Rockwell's Errors List

March 31, 1945 Issue of The Saturday Evening Post

April Fool: Fishing, a Norman Rockwell painting, appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post published March 31, 1945. This is another favorite of Rockwell collectors, a classic enduring image of the world Rockwell painted.

This painting was Rockwell's 228th overall out of 322 total paintings that were published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell's career with the Post spanned 47 years, from his first cover illustration, Boy With Baby Carriage in 1916 to his last, Portrait of John F. Kennedy, in 1963.

This was also the second cover for The Post in 1945. In 1945, there were ten Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers published.

The location of the original oil on canvas painting is not known.

This painting also appears in four Rockwell commentary books. It appears:

• on pages 325 and 346 of Norman Rockwell 332 Magazine Covers by Christopher Finch
• on page 43 of The Norman Rockwell Album
• as illustration 409 of Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator by Thomas Buechner and
• on page 160 of Norman Rockwell, A Definitive Catalogue by Laurie Norton Moffatt.

Pristine original copies of this magazine cover routinely sell for big bucks on eBay, when it is offered. And to think it only cost ten cents originally! And it was mint condition then, too.

April Fool: Fishing

This Norman Rockwell painting is a real treat for both the eyes and the imagination.

In this painting, Norman Rockwell answers his critic with a dose of total inaccuracy, errors and inconsistency.

Here is Norman Rockwell's own list of errors, mistakes and inaccuracies from April Fool's: Fishing from 1945:

1. Apples fruiting on maple tree
2. Apples are different colored
3. Baseball is among apples
4. Pine boughs on maple tree
5. Pine cones should point down instead of up
6. Horse chestnut leaves on maple tree
7. Grape cluster on maple tree
8. April 1, 1945 was Sunday, not Monday
9. Penguin is flying
10. Halo around fisherman's head
11. BBird nest on phone
12. Different colored eggs in nest
13. Different or wrong colored butterflies
14. Phone wire is on wrong end of receiver
15. Books in bookshelf in tree
16. Castle in background landscape
17. Lighthouse and ship on dry land
18. Ear muffs in summer
19. Fur collar on velvet jacket
20. Two different designs on shirt fabric
21. Man is wearing a life jacket
22. Man has three hands
23. Shirt is buttoned wrong way
24. Cigarette and pipe lit at same time
25. Collar and necktie on bird
26. Baitcasting rod has flycasting reel
27. Cloth patches on waders
28. Rod is upside down
29. Alligator on root
30. Cobra emerging from mandolin
31. Ribbon is on mandolin
32. Post heading is on wrong side of magazine
33. Snow scene on right side of picture
34. Horizone on two backgrounds are different
35. Horns on mouse head
36. Animal head on turtle body
37. Tomato picture on plum can
38. House slippers worn on skis
39. Seashells under tree
40. Dutchman's breeches
41. Ladies slippers
42. Buttercup
43. Thimbleweed
44. Batchelor buttons
45. Poison ivey
46. Norman Rockwell signature is upside down and backwards
47. Skis have no backs
48. Lead sinker on line should be below floater
49. Floater is upside down
50. Red should be at the tip of the floater in right position

One "error" that you probably spotted is the blue lobster. You are wrong. Such creatures actually exist. Rockwell actually saw one onec in Maine.

How many more "mistakes" can you spot? Feel free to express yourself below.

See the other paintings in the April Fool's series, 1943's April Fool's: Checkers and 1948's April Fool's: Girl With Shopkeeper.

Norman Rockwell's April Fool: Fishing (1945)
(Image Only) Copyright © 1945 Saturday Evening Post & Curtis Publishing Company