Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

Keeping His Course (Exeter Grill)

Details

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
Keeping His Course (Exeter Grill)
signed 'Norman/Rockwell' (lower right)
oil on canvas
31 x 20 in. (78.7 x 50.8 cm.)
Painted in 1918.

Provenance

The artist.
Private collection, New Hampshire.
Roger P. Moore, Saco, Maine, gift from the above.
By descent to the present owner.

Literature

R.H. Barbour, Keeping His Course, New York, 1918, p. 254, illustrated.
L.N. Moffatt, Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, vol.2, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, p. 878, no. B203, illustrated (as Keeping His Course 'He consumed a large piece of apple pie').

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Lot Essay

Norman Rockwell's Keeping His Course (Exeter Grill) was painted as an illustration for Keeping his Course (1918) by Ralph Henry Barbour. Rockwell worked with Barbour and his publisher D. Appleton Publishers to illustrate a series of books including Keeping His Course, Hitting the Line, The Purple Pennant, and The Lucky Seventh. Barbour wrote over 100 novels, mostly sports fiction for young boys and they were immensely popular. His didactic and idealistic tales focused on school pride and the importance of sports as a way to express that spirit. The present work depicts a young student of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, dressed in his school colors, enjoying a slice of apple pie at the casual canteen affectionately known to Exeter students as "Grill."

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