Worried that his artistic style was not keeping up with contemporary thought, Rockwell went to Paris in 1923 to learn more about modernism. He tried to apply what he learned to his Post covers, with disastrous consequences. His editor, Lorimer, called attention to the fact that it might be better for Rockwell to have his art on the cover of the Post, where people are likely to see it, than in a museum, where very few ever would. With that, Rockwell's modern period ended, and he went back to his usual style.
Rockwell's attention to detail and unique talent for capturing the true human spirit made his work stand out and be remembered. Rockwell's characters are "real people, marked by the attritional processes of life, and they are faithfully rendered to the last wrinkle, callus, crow's foot, shoulder stoop, and irregular nose line" (Guptill xxii). Rockwell was known for his sensitive, realistic portrayal of his characters, and indeed of every object in each drawing. He kept a collection of costumes and props to use in his work, and was always searching for new ones everywhere he went. While he was preparing to illustrate special editions of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, he once stopped and bargained to trade pants with a farmer who had been out plowing in his field, and even gave the farmer four dollars in the trade. He believed that years of age and use could not be faked, and so all of his props were real .
items, used by real people. He even believed that dogs from the pound had more character than other dogs, and used them as his canine models. .
Until the early 1920s, Rockwell's art had portrayed young boys almost exclusively. After his time in the Navy, his subjects began to change: he began to include more girls, families, young lovers, and even senior citizens. Usually, Rockwell's Post covers focused on one or two figures, occasionally using three, and rarely showed much space behind those figures.