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Lot Essay
To many people, the Saturday Evening Post and Norman Rockwell are synonymous. "For a majority of Americans who lived through the rapid growth and change of the twentieth century, the Rockwell covers represent an identifiable and comfortable image of life in the United States. The publication of a new Rockwell cover was cause for widespread anticipation and delight for millions of Americans. Had he never painted the thousands of other known covers, advertisements, illustrations and miscellaneous artwork, the Post covers alone, it would seem, would have been enough to assure him the success and popularity he achieved as an illustrator." (L.N. Moffatt, Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, p. 72)
Covering a sweeping range of topics during a century of extensive technological and social change, Rockwell helped forge a sense of national identity through his art. Born in 1894 in New York, Rockwell witnessed the height of Impressionism as well as the development of Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. He traveled to Europe to study the art of Pablo Picasso and he was aware of the move toward modernism in American by Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko, among others. Despite the trends of the day, however, Rockwell chose to pursue a career as an illustrator. Over the course of seven decades, Rockwell produced more than eight hundred magazine covers and ad campaigns for over 150 companies. In doing so Rockwell himself became as ubiquitous to the American public as the images he created and his paintings captured American history. "His images convey our human shortcomings as well as our national ideals of freedom, democracy, equality, tolerance and common decency in ways that nobody could understand. He has become an American institution. Steven Spielberg recently said, 'Aside from being an astonishingly good storyteller, Rockwell spoke volumes about a certain kind of American morality.' It is a morality based on popular values and patriotism, a morality that yearns above all for goodness to trump evil." (L.N. Moffatt, "The People's Painter," in M.H. Hennessey and A. Knutson, Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People, New York, 1999, p. 26)
During a forty-seven year tenure as chief illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post, Norman Rockwell produced three-hundred and twenty-one covers. Throughout this extended period, the subject of youth was one of Rockwell's favorite themes. Boy Photographing Self-Portrait is but exemplary of this motif. Painted for the April 18, 1925 magazine cover, the work depicts a determined young boy, a symbol of middle-America, shrewdly attempting a 'grown-up,' serious self portrait photograph. Boy Photographing Self-Portrait touches on "the virtue that [Rockwell] admires...and because he illustrates [his paintings] using familiar people in familiar settings with wonderful accuracy, he describes the American Dream." (T. Buechner, Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1972, p. 13)
American illustration holds a special place within the context of American art. Before television entered the American home, newspapers and magazines were the primary news sources for the nation. The artists who illustrated these periodicals had a great deal of influence on public opinion and on the way Americans perceived their nation. Norman Rockwell did more than simply fulfill his commissions; He understood his advantageous position and put his best efforts into his important work. He stated himself: "No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He's got to put all of his talent, all of his feeling into them. If illustration is not considered art, then that is something that we have brought upon ourselves by not considering ourselves artists. I believe that we should say, 'I am not just an illustrator, I am an artist.'" (as quoted in J. Goffman, The Great American Illustrators, New York, 1993, p. 122)
The scope of Rockwell's appeal is still expanding as new generations live through the same quintessentially American types of experiences that Rockwell so faithfully depicted in his art. "For six decades, through two World Wars, the Great Depression, unprecedented national prosperity and radical social change, Norman Rockwell held up a mirror to America and reflected its identity through the portraits he painted of its people...Rockwell's paintings have done more than just sell magazines. They are in a large measure the visual memory of a nation." (V. Crenson, Norman Rockwell's Portrait of America, New York, 1989, p. 9)
Covering a sweeping range of topics during a century of extensive technological and social change, Rockwell helped forge a sense of national identity through his art. Born in 1894 in New York, Rockwell witnessed the height of Impressionism as well as the development of Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. He traveled to Europe to study the art of Pablo Picasso and he was aware of the move toward modernism in American by Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko, among others. Despite the trends of the day, however, Rockwell chose to pursue a career as an illustrator. Over the course of seven decades, Rockwell produced more than eight hundred magazine covers and ad campaigns for over 150 companies. In doing so Rockwell himself became as ubiquitous to the American public as the images he created and his paintings captured American history. "His images convey our human shortcomings as well as our national ideals of freedom, democracy, equality, tolerance and common decency in ways that nobody could understand. He has become an American institution. Steven Spielberg recently said, 'Aside from being an astonishingly good storyteller, Rockwell spoke volumes about a certain kind of American morality.' It is a morality based on popular values and patriotism, a morality that yearns above all for goodness to trump evil." (L.N. Moffatt, "The People's Painter," in M.H. Hennessey and A. Knutson, Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People, New York, 1999, p. 26)
During a forty-seven year tenure as chief illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post, Norman Rockwell produced three-hundred and twenty-one covers. Throughout this extended period, the subject of youth was one of Rockwell's favorite themes. Boy Photographing Self-Portrait is but exemplary of this motif. Painted for the April 18, 1925 magazine cover, the work depicts a determined young boy, a symbol of middle-America, shrewdly attempting a 'grown-up,' serious self portrait photograph. Boy Photographing Self-Portrait touches on "the virtue that [Rockwell] admires...and because he illustrates [his paintings] using familiar people in familiar settings with wonderful accuracy, he describes the American Dream." (T. Buechner, Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1972, p. 13)
American illustration holds a special place within the context of American art. Before television entered the American home, newspapers and magazines were the primary news sources for the nation. The artists who illustrated these periodicals had a great deal of influence on public opinion and on the way Americans perceived their nation. Norman Rockwell did more than simply fulfill his commissions; He understood his advantageous position and put his best efforts into his important work. He stated himself: "No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He's got to put all of his talent, all of his feeling into them. If illustration is not considered art, then that is something that we have brought upon ourselves by not considering ourselves artists. I believe that we should say, 'I am not just an illustrator, I am an artist.'" (as quoted in J. Goffman, The Great American Illustrators, New York, 1993, p. 122)
The scope of Rockwell's appeal is still expanding as new generations live through the same quintessentially American types of experiences that Rockwell so faithfully depicted in his art. "For six decades, through two World Wars, the Great Depression, unprecedented national prosperity and radical social change, Norman Rockwell held up a mirror to America and reflected its identity through the portraits he painted of its people...Rockwell's paintings have done more than just sell magazines. They are in a large measure the visual memory of a nation." (V. Crenson, Norman Rockwell's Portrait of America, New York, 1989, p. 9)