{"id":14505,"date":"2013-12-05T07:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T07:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zatista.com\/blog\/?p=14505"},"modified":"2013-12-05T07:00:20","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T07:00:20","slug":"record-norman-rockwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zatista.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/12\/05\/record-norman-rockwell\/","title":{"rendered":"Record Norman Rockwell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Crop of Norman Rockwell\u2019s 1941 oil painting, Package from Home<\/p><\/div>\n

Excerpt from The New York Times<\/a>: Three paintings by Norman Rockwell<\/a> celebrating homey, small-town America, among the most popular of his 322 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, sold at Sotheby\u2019s<\/a> on Wednesday morning for a total of nearly $57.8 million, about twice their high estimate.<\/p>\n

The auction house\u2019s York Avenue salesroom in Manhattan, filled with American art dealers and collectors, went dead quiet while a tense nine-and-a-half-minute bidding battle played out for \u201cSaying Grace,\u201d one of Rockwell\u2019s best-loved scenes. It brought $46 million, well over its high estimate of $20 million and the most ever paid at auction for his work.<\/p>\n

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The Saturday Evening Post Illustration, owned by SEPS. Licensed by Curtis Licensing. Norman Rockwell's "Saying Grace" appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on Nov. 24, 1951.<\/p><\/div>\n

The 1951 oil, which depicts a boy and an elderly woman bowing their heads in prayer at a diner, topped a 1955 readers\u2019 poll at The Saturday Evening Post four years after it appeared. (The magazine paid Rockwell $3,500 for the cover painting, equivalent to about $30,500 today.) Wednesday\u2019s auction price smashed the previous high flyer, \u201cBreaking Home Ties,\u201d depicting a fresh-faced boy leaving home for the first time, which brought $15.4 million at Sotheby\u2019s in 2006.<\/p>\n

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The Saturday Evening Post Illustration, owned by SEPS. Licensed by Curtis Licensing. \u201cThe Gossips\u201d ran on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1948.<\/p><\/div>\n

Another favorite, \u201cThe Gossips,\u201d a finger-wagging montage of friends, neighbors and Rockwell himself, was expected to bring $6 million to $9 million but was snapped up for $8.45 million. When the image ran on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1948, the magazine was flooded with inquiries from readers wanting to know what the heads were gossiping about.<\/p>\n

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The Saturday Evening Post Illustration, owned by SEPS. Licensed by Curtis Licensing. Rockwell based \u201cWalking to Church\u201d on a Vermeer painting, \u201cThe Little Street,\u201d translating the scene to fit his idealized vision of an urban street scene.<\/p><\/div>\n

The third canvas, \u201cWalking to Church,\u201d sold for $3.2 million to Rick Lapham, an American paintings dealer who said he bought it for a client. Mr. Lapham was one of only two bidders for the painting, from the April 4, 1953, cover of The Post. Rockwell based its composition on a Vermeer painting, \u201cThe Little Street,\u201d translating the scene to fit his idealized vision of an urban street scene, with family members in their Easter best, each clutching Bibles. He used a composite of different buildings in Troy, N.Y., and a church steeple in Vermont. The painting sold for $3.2 million with fees. It had been expected to fetch $3 million to $5 million. Asked why there was not more competition for the painting, Mr. Lapham replied, \u201cIt\u2019s stylistically different,\u201d referring to Rockwell\u2019s translation of an old master painting.<\/p>\n

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Shuffleton\u2019s Barbershop Norman Rockwell April 29, 1950. This painting inspired the Hallmark movie, Norman Rockwell\u2019s Shuffleton\u2019s Barbershop<\/p><\/div>\n

Who bought the first two works remains a mystery. Sotheby\u2019s isn\u2019t saying, nor are the buyers. Among this country\u2019s top Rockwell collectors are the filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, as well as the businessman H. Ross Perot and Alice L. Walton, the Walmart heiress. None could be spotted in the audience or in any of Sotheby\u2019s skyboxes.<\/p>\n

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Santa's Surprise by Norman Rockwell<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe set an American art record,\u201d said the seller, referring to the $46 million price tag of \u201cSaying Grace,\u201d which Sotheby\u2019s was touting as the highest price ever paid for a painting at an American art auction. \u201cIt\u2019s been a wild ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

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