How Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom of Speech” Painting Went Viral

, as Citarella puts it. “ There’s a real push and pull with the semiotic use of this particular image.”

The longing for a return to an imagined golden age of liberalism comes as there is a push from some on the right to return to the racial and gender hierarchies of midcentury America. On the left, there seems to be a small effort to “reclaim some of that imagery,” Mr. Citarella said.

“There’s a real push and pull with the semiotic use of this particular image,” he said of “Freedom of Speech.”

But the painting’s effort at universality still seems to resonate with those who share it online.

“Even if you are not a middle-aged white man speaking, people use him to represent themselves,” said Kathryn Winn, the author and editor of the Substack newsletter Memeforum. “There is a neutrality to him in that he’s not making an expression or saying anything beyond ‘This is my opinion.’”

For much of his career, and long after his death, Rockwell was considered “an enemy of modern art,” a “lowly calendar artist” and “a cornball and a square,” according to Deborah Solomon, who published a biography of Rockwell in 2013. But in recent years, Rockwell’s work has fetched tens of millions at auction houses — far exceeding expectations for American paintings — and has been looked on more kindly by some critics.

That Rockwell has been entered into the internet’s canon, too, is “a great way to maintain his presence in the public consciousness,” Ms. Plunkett said. Even if “Freedom of Speech” is largely wielded with irony online, something of its original meaning seems to shine through.

People from “all sides of the political spectrum” may use the painting to express, say, their views on pineapple as a pizza topping, Ms. Winn said. “The meme shows that we value freedom of speech, even at its most stupid, and that’s what Twitter is for.”