Just Married
Original signed gouache over photo
23.5 x 20.3
1967
(American, 1894-1978)
Born in New York City in 1894, Norman Rockwell always wanted to be an artist. At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The Chase School of Art. Two years later, in 1910, he left high school to study art at The National Academy of Design. He soon transferred to The Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman, Rockwell learned the technical skills upon which he relied throughout his long career.
Rockwell found success early. He painted his first commission of four Christmas cards before his sixteenth birthday. While still in his teens, he was hired as art director of Boys’ Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, and began a successful freelance career illustrating a variety of young people’s publications.
At age 21, Rockwell’s family moved to New Rochelle, New York, a community whose residents included such famous illustrators as J.C. and Frank Leyendecker and Howard Chandler Christy. There, Rockwell set up a studio with the cartoonist Clyde Forsythe and produced work for such magazines as Life, The Literary Digest and Country Gentleman. In 1916, the 22-year-old Rockwell painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, the magazine considered by Rockwell to be the “greatest show window in America.? Over the next 47 years, another 321 Rockwell works would appear on the cover of the Post.
During the First World War, Rockwell tried to enlist in the U.S. Navy, but was refused entry because at 6-feet tall and 140 pounds, he was eight pounds underweight. To compensate, he spent one night gorging himself on bananas, liquids and doughnuts, and weighed enough to enlist the next day. However, he was given the role of a military artist and did not see any action during his tour of duty.
The 1930s and 1940s are generally considered to be the most fruitful decades of Rockwell’s career. In 1930, he married Mary Barstow, a school teacher, and the couple had three sons: Jarvis, Thomas and Peter. The family moved to Arlington, Vermont in 1939 and Rockwell’s work began to reflect small-town American life.
In 1943, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s address to Congress, Rockwell created the Four Freedoms paintings. They were reproduced in four consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post with essays by contemporary writers. Rockwell’s interpretations of Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear proved to be enormously popular. The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly sponsored by the Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort. Rockwell himself considered Freedom of Speech to be the best painting of the four.
Although the Four Freedoms series was a great success, 1943 also brought Rockwell an enormous loss when a fire destroyed his Arlington studio. The studio contained numerous artworks, as well as his vast collection of historical costumes and props, which the artist relied upon in many of his compositions. Rockwell’s exaggerated realism, sometimes verging into caricature, was often based upon photographs of carefully constructed scenes staged by the artist. During the late 1940s, he spent the winter months as artist-in-residence at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Otis students were occasionally used as models for his Post covers.
In 1953, the Rockwell family moved from Arlington, Vermont to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Six years later, Mary Barstow Rockwell died unexpectedly. In collaboration with his son Thomas, Rockwell published his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, in 1960. The Saturday Evening Post carried excerpts from the best-selling book in eight consecutive issues, with Rockwell’s Triple Self-Portrait on the cover of the first.
In 1961, Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher. Tow years later, he ended his 47-year association with The Saturday Evening Post and began to work for Look magazine. During his 10-year association with Look, Rockwell painted pictures illustrating some of his deepest concerns and interests, including civil rights, America’s war on poverty and the exploration of space.
In 1973, Rockwell established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy by placing his works in the custodianship of the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society, later to become the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge. The trust now forms the core of the Museum’s permanent collections. In 1976, in failing health, Rockwell became concerned about the future of his studio. He arranged to have his studio and its contents added to the trust. In 1977, Rockwell received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal. He died in Stockbridge on November 8, 1978.
Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.
--Norman Rockwell
This charming throwback to a bygone era is a terrific example from one of the giants of American art, Norman Rockwell. This small painting takes us back in time in more ways than one. The image was used as the cover for a 1967 Top Value Stamps gift catalogue. Top Value Stamps was one of the leading purveyors of trading stamps, along with other companies such as well-known S&H Green Stamps. Trading stamps were small paper coupons given by merchants to their customers with purchases. The stamps had no value individually, but when a customer saved up a certain number of them, they could be exchanged with the trading stamp company for a variety of merchandise. Merchants commonly developed customer loyalty based upon which brand of trading stamps they gave away with purchases. Trading stamps disappeared in the mid-1970s, as rising inflation caused merchants to cut costs wherever possible.
From the man’s yellow cashmere sweater, worn over a dress shirt and tie no less, to the woman’s apron and patterned dress, the piece invokes all the nostalgia of vintage ‘50s Americana. The palette is soft and somehow wholesome, optimistic—inspiring thoughts of innocence and goodwill. The newlyweds, luggage already packed for their honeymoon, have taken a moment to browse the Top Value Stamps catalogue. The husband is making notes regarding his wife’s selections. An impromptu supper of hamburgers rests—seemingly forgotten—on the floor at their feet. These very good folks are pleasantly preoccupied in reconnaissance of all the wonderful booty they might garner in exchange for those precious Top Value stamps. The pink and green flowers on the wallpaper’s background add an almost saccharine dose of sweetness to the entire scene.
Top Value Enterprises commissioned Rockwell in the 1960s to create several catalogue covers. Geoff Priestley of Dayton, Ohio, and his wife are the subjects of this painting. Mr. Priestley was the executive at Top Value who engaged Rockwell for the project, and Rockwell chose the Priestleys as his models. The mat has been inscribed, “My best wishes to my friend and patron Geoff Priestley, Norman Rockwell, November 1969.?