Spot the 51 Mistakes in this 1945 Rockwell April Fools painting…
April Fool: Fishing,” Norman Rockwell. 1945. Cover illustration for “The Saturday Evening Post,” March 31, 1945. Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections. ©1945 SEPS: Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN
The principal April fooleries in the painting are:
1. Apples on maple tree.
2. Different-color apples.
3. Baseball among apples.
4. Pine boughs.
5. Pine cone should point down under bough.
6. Horse-chestnut leaves.
7. Grapes.
8. April 1st comes on Sunday, not Monday.
9. Penguins don’t fly.
10. Halo.
11. Nest on phone.
12. Different-color eggs.
13. Phone wire on wrong end of receiver.
14. Different or wrong color butterflies.
15. Books on tree.
16. Castle in landscape.
17. Lighthouse and ship.
18. Earmuffs.
19. Fur collar on velvet jacket.
20. Two different designs on shirt.
21. Shirt buttoned wrong way.
22. Life jacket.
23. Three hands.
24. Cigarette and pipe used at same time.
25. Collar and necktie on bird.
26. Fly-casting reel on bait-casting rod.
27. Cloth patches on waders.
28. Rod upside down.
29. Alligators as roots.
30. Cobra in mandolin.
31. Ribbon on mandolin.
32. Post heading on wrong side of magazine.
33. Snow scene.
34. Horizons different on two scenes.
35. Horns on mouse’s head.
36. Animal head on turtle.
37. You’re wrong; there are blue lobsters although they are
extremely unusual freaks of nature.
38. Tomato picture on plum can.
39. House slippers on skis.
40. Shells.
41. Dutchman’s-breeches.
42. Lady’s-slipper.
43. Buttercup.
44. Thimbleweed.
45. Bachelor-buttons.
46. Poison ivy.
47. Signature upside down.
48. Skis without backs.
49. Lead sinkers on line should be below floater.
50. Floater upside down.
51. Red should be at top of floater in right position.