This week The New Yorker‘s Talk of the Town section sat down with Lynda Gunn, who in 1963 served as the model for the girl in Norman Rockwell’s The Problem We All Live With. That painting depicts the story of Ruby Bridges, who became the first African-American girl to enroll in an all-white Southern elementary school in 1960. The painting is currently on loan to The White House, where it hangs at the request of President Obama.
It’s wasn’t easy being a model for Rockwell! Ms. Gunn received just $10 for the job, and had to stand on wooden blocks so that it looked like she was walking. In the end it’s essentially all right because she received some comped food at the Red Rooster in Harlem.
If you like Norman Rockwell you should go read it. Subscription only.
