Norman Rockwell

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Why Norman Rockwell Matters

After Christmas (Saturday Evening Post cover, January 8, 1927)	$5,120
After the Prom	9,600
America Marches Ahead	4,160
April Fool	11,520
Back From Camp (Saturday Evening Post cover, August 24, 1940)	3,840
Ben Franklin (Saturday Evening Post cover, May 29, 1926)	4,800
Boy on Stilts (Saturday Evening Post cover, October 4, 1919)	5,960
Buttercup	6,720
Can't Wait	6,920
Catching the Big One (Saturday Evening Post cover, August 3, 1929)	4,480
Charwomen	10,800
Child's Surprise (Saturday Evening Post cover, January 25, 1936)	4,880
Colonial Sign Painter	6,240
Connoisseur (Saturday Evening Post cover, January 13, 1962)	10,080
Convention	6,960
Dreamboats (Saturday Evening Post cover, February 19, 1938)	4,600
Dreams of Long Ago	6,720
Extra Boys and Girls (Saturday Evening Post cover, December 16, 1939)	6,320
First Airplane Ride	4,480
Football Hero (Saturday Evening Post cover, November 19, 1938)	4,080
Four Ages of Love	12,800
Gilding the Eagle (Saturday Evening Post cover, May 26, 1928)	4,480
Hayseed Critic (Saturday Evening Post cover, July 21, 1928)	4,640
Jazz It Up (Saturday Evening Post cover, November 2, 1929)	3,840
Jester (Saturday Evening Post cover, February 11, 1939)	3,640
John Kennedy (Saturday Evening Post cover, October 29, 1960)	3,200
Law Student (Saturday Evening Post cover, February 19, 1927)	5,760
Muggleton Stagecoach	3,520
Our Heritage	5,920
Puppy Love Portfolio	22,400
Racer	4,720
Rejected Suitor (Saturday Evening Post cover, October 2, 1926)	3,640
Rivals	6,960
School Walk	4,800
Secrets (Saturday Evening Post cover, March 21, 1942)	4,480
She's My Baby (Saturday Evening Post cover, June 4, 1927)	3,720
Sports Portfolio	17,600
Starstruck	4,600
Stock Exchange	4,800
Swing	6,720
Three Boys Fishing	5,760
Top Hat and Tails	7,840
Under Sail	3,520
Voyager (Saturday Evening Post cover, November 8, 1930)	7,840
Wind Up	4,640
Ye Pipe and Bowl	3,360
Young Lincoln	10,400
Young Spooners	8,800

The Norman Rockwell lithographs shown below are from the "Encore Edition" and are gold stamp signed with a facsimile signature from the limited edition of 200.

Lickin' Good Bath	$600
The Optometrist	600
Autumn Harvest	600
Dancing Partners	600
Summer Start	600
Winter Morning	600
Artist's Daughter	600

Norman Rockwell  (February 3, 1894 - November 8, 1978) Norman Rockwell was born in New York City on February 3, 1894.  During a career that spanned seven decades, Norman Rockwell was extremely prolific, creating over 2,600 published illustrations and the many color and charcoal studies used to develop these final images.  Relatively few Rockwell works were non-commissioned; even portraits of his family members and friends were sometimes done as illustrations for publication.  In other cases, the ideas behind an illustration were taken directly from Rockwell’s personal experiences.  In 1913 Norman Rockwell obtained the position of art director for "Boy's Life" magazine.  However, especially in his later years, Norman Rockwell did some painting and sketching that was not on commission.  Many of these landscapes and portraits were done on his extensive travels.  Others were created as part of an art class he took in the early 1960's in an effort to get himself out of his studio and improve his work. Throughout his life, Norman Rockwell traveled across the United States and to Europe, usually with his family.  Rockwell met his wife Mary during a visit to southern California in 1930 and, two years later, the couple and their baby son Jarvis lived in Europe for several months.  In the 1960's and 1970's, Rockwell and his wife Molly traveled around the world.  Sometimes the trips were related to specific commissions, such as Rockwell’s illustrations for Look magazine’s story on the Peace Corps, which took the Rockwells to Africa, Asia and South America.  Other travels were purely for pleasure and personal reasons. During his journeys, Rockwell painted and sketched, and he seemed to take great pleasure in this very private art.  During his trip to Europe in 1927, Rockwell’s sketchbook was stolen in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Writing about the experience in his autobiography thirty years later, Rockwell wrote," ... I’d done it just for my own pleasure.  No deadline; I wasn’t planning to sell it. I still almost cry when I think about it. I’ve never lost anything I felt so bad about." However, Rockwell’s sketchbook from his 1932 European sojourn does survive, as do a number of travel portraits and landscapes from later travels.  Rockwell rarely used watercolor in his illustration work but did use it as well as oils in his travel paintings.  These works, done directly from life and without studies, have a freshness and spontaneity not found in Rockwell’s final illustrations, and they also are more impressionistic and less detailed.  His charcoal and pencil drawings, however, show Rockwell’s control of the medium and innate attention to detail, even when working for no one’s approval but his own. Family Ties features published works as well as the personal art meant only for Norman Rockwell’s eyes and those of a few close family members and friends.  Both kinds of images provide insight into the private life of this celebrated and renowned figure. As an illustrator, Norman Rockwell almost never created works as objects of fine art.  His drawings and paintings were created for one of the many magazines or advertising accounts he illustrated for, and as such, had little or no value at the time.  In his early career, works were often just given away.  Ad agencies may or may not have kept the work.  An art director at an agency may have laid claim to the work or passed it on to someone in his staff.  No one then could have imagined the demand for his artwork nor foreseen the price it would command today. Collectors now pay well over $800,000 for the privilege of owning an original oil painting.  A post World War II finished oil painting used as a Saturday Evening Post cover could easily be worth $1 million or more.  Oil studies have sold for over $100,000 and charcoal and pencil drawings for near $100,000. When commissioned to do an illustration, or in preparation for a Post cover, Rockwell began by staging props and then drawing them.  Later in his career he simply photographed the setting and worked from the photos.  Generally he would render the concept first as a pencil and charcoal drawing, then do an oil study (or two) and then the final oil painting.  In his travels, Rockwell would draw and paint simply for his own enjoyment.  And occasionally, he was known to have taken classes for stimulation and to be with other artists. All of these various types of works appear on the market today.  Good finished oil paintings that were covers for the Saturday Evening Post are rare but they do appear and as stated above can be quit pricey.  Works that are of the patented Rockwellian humor are the most highly sought after, with the best being in the high six figures.  Good oil paintings are available in the mid-range of $250,000 to $450,000.  Lesser known but good oils can be in the $80 - $150,000 range (or occasionally less).  Drawings and oil studies can start at around $20,000.  Limited edition prints such as those shown on this page start at $2,000 and go up from there. For information on specific Norman Rockwell titles and the availability of oil paintings created and signed by Norman Rockwell, please contact Saper Galleries now.