April Fool: Girl with Shopkeeper: List of Errors

April 3, 1948 Issue of The Saturday Evening Post

April Fool: Girl with Shopkeeper, a Norman Rockwell painting, appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post published April 3, 1948. This is another favorite of Rockwell collectors, a classic enduring image of the world Rockwell painted.

An alternate title is April Fool 1948.

This painting was Rockwell's 253rd 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 third cover for The Post in 1948. In 1948, there were seven Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers published.

The original oil on canvas painting is part of a private collection.

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

• on page 43 of The Norman Rockwell Album
• as illustration 429 of Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator by Thomas Buechner and
• on page 178 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 fifteen cents originally! And it was mint condition then, too.

Errors from April Fool: Girl with Shopkeeper

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

Here is Norman Rockwell's own list of errors, mistakes and inaccuracies from April Fool's: Girl With Shopkeeper from 1948:

1. Two Kinds of Molding on cupboard top
2. North American Pileated Woodpecker head is on body of crane
3. Coffepot spout is upside down
4. Barbed wire in place of clothesline
5. Insignia is on back of fireman's helmet instead of front
6. Green and red lights are reversed on ship's lantern
7. One cup is not hanging by its handle
8. Electric bulbs are growing on plant
9. Man's bust has head of little girl
10. Chipmunk sports rat's tail
11. Penholder has pencil eracer
12. Top of brass vase is suspender in air
13. Clock face is a man's face
14. Candle is where kerosene lamp should be
15. Sampler is dated 1216
16. Winter secen is seen through left window, summer scene through right window
17. Antique dealer's head is on dolls
18. Nine branches on traditionally seven branched candleabrum
19. Beast, looks like a cougar, is crouched on top shelf
20. Girl's hair is loose on one side, in braided pigtail on other side
21. Titles on books read vertically instead of horizontally
22. Girl's sweater is btooned the wrong way
23. Mouthpiece is shown on both ends of phone
24. Phone is not connected
25. Goat's head shows deer's antlers
26. No shelf to support books
27. Lace cuff on shopkeeper's shirt
28. Five fingers and one thumb on girl's left hand
29. Gun's barrell is in wrong place
30. Saddle is on the goat
31. Potted plant is on top of lighted stove
32. Girl's purse is a book
33. Girl's purse only has half a strap
34. Skunk is in girl's arms
35. Sea gull has crane legs
36. Stovepipe is missing from stove
37. Mona Lisa has a halo
38. Mona Lisa is also facing the wrong way
39. Abraham Lincoln is wearting General Grant's military coat
40. Stove has April Fool imprinted on it
41. Doll has hooves onstead of feet
42. Little girl is sitting on air
43. Roger's group is combination of soldier from "Our Hero" and girl from "Blushing Bride"
44. Brass kettle sports two spouts
45. Antique dealer wears spur on one shoe
46. Mouse is conferring with ground mole
47. Ground mole's track through wooden floor
48. Dog's head is on cat's body
49. Racoon's tail is on cat's body
50. Ball fringe is standing straight up at an angle
51. Stove is missing one leg
52. These are two different kinds of flooring
53. Norman Rockwell signature is reversed
54. Rockwell is mispelled Rockwoll
55. Flowers are growing in floor
56. Girl's socks do not match
57. Girl's shoes do not match

How many more "mistakes" can you spot?

See all the paintings in the April Fool's series, 1943's April Fool's: Checkers and 1945's April Fool's: Fishing.

Norman Rockwell's April Fool: Girl with Shopkeeper (1948)
(Image Only) Copyright © 1948 Saturday Evening Post & Curtis Publishing Company