The Saturday Evening Post editors want to hear your choice for best Rockwell cover, from the ones shown here, or a personal favorite. Tell us your favorite in the comments below!
September 20, 1958
August 18, 1928
September 2, 1939
October 21, 1933
September 28, 1929
March 9, 1929
March 3, 1941
May 26, 1945
August 11, 1945
August 30, 1947
March 6, 1948
March 19, 1949
September 24, 1949
June 2, 1951
November 24, 1951
May 24, 1952
May 23, 1953
September 25, 1954
March 17, 1956
March 15, 1958
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Comments
Definitely Important Business (man leaving work to go golfing), apropos even today (except I leave my clubs in the car)
It difficult for me to choose between the Triple Self-Portrait and the Art Critic. If pressed I believe I’ll go with the Art Critic. I enjoy viewing good paintings but I usually don’t take much time to analyze it. I love the detail of this painting, especially the “masters” paintings looking back at the critic. The paint on the palette is great. So is the book opened to the page of the painting being examined, as well as the accuracy of the position of the arm/hand holding the book. And even the detail of the frames is great.
I really like all of them, but I like “The Law Student”. However, as I look at more and more of his paintings my favorite changes from time to time.
I remember seeing “Doctor and the Doll” in my Doctors office when I was a child. The Doctor in this painting looks a lot like my own doctor at the time, and he also had an old oak desk. Even though I ran from his office on occasion from threatening needles, this image gave me comfort, and brought a human touch to the medical profession.
I didn’t see it in the pictures on this link but I’d like to se The Blacksmith Boy that I believe to have been a cover picture about 1955-1960 or so.
I don’t remember if you also had a cover of The Ft. Fisher (NC) Hermit. If so, I’d like to see that one again also.
Thanks.
I like,’ Happy Birthday Miss Jones’. It reminds me of a picture of my mother in her classroom back in the 1910/14 up in the Tug Hill area of upstate New York.
On the August 1950 cover there is a picture of a salesman in his hotel room playing solitare on his sample case. I have it framed and in my office. As a traveling salesman for over 35 years I often think that very little has changed. Now we play solitare on our computers instead of our sample cases.
As a musician, I enjoy all of the musical covers (especially the string quartet in the barbershop, the dog who seems ambivalent about his young friend’s trumpet skills, and the old-timer listening to his favorite tunes from yesteryear). However, as a creative person myself, I have to name as my favorite the 1938 cover, “Artist Faced With a Blank Canvas.” What creative person can’t relate to the artist who is facing a deadline but hasn’t come up with any ideas yet? Many how-to books about writing, etc. suggest that, if you don’t have anything to say right then, express that. Somewhat comforting that even Mr. Rockwell wrestled with those issues!
Breaking Home Ties, without a doubt. My parents still have it framed, in their home. The boy, the Father, and the dog, all trying to put on a brave face. It just pulls you right in.
This isn’t a comment about a favorite cover but a query.
Back in the mid 1930’s, when I was about 8 yrs.old, our family had a cousin who lived in Westport Conn. area. I remember seeing the magazine. His picture was on it’s cover. and I have always been under the impression that it was the Post. Do you have all the Post Covers? I believe it would be in an early fall issue since the boy pictured was dashing down the front steps of a building (his home?), with his arms outstretched and a suitcase in each hand. “Leaving For College” or such would have been a good title. His last name was Ritter.
I have looked through several books of Rockwell’s paintings but never seen this one. Maybe it wasn’t Rockwell maybe it was another magazine. We didn’t keep in close touch with the Ritters and now I’m the last of my family so there is no one for me to ask about it.
Could you look through your files and see if you find it? I think there were other magazines, Colliers comes to mind but I don’t think their covers are collectibles.
Thank you for any help you can give me.
Eleanor Palmer .
Saying Grace moves me like no other.
I think “Breaking Home Ties” is very special. I have several Norman Rockwell prints framed in my home, which are not included.
I love them all, but my favorite has to be “Breaking Home Times”. It reminds me of when my brother left for the Air Force. I think it is the dogs expression of sensing that his master is leaving that gives this a melancholy look. The only one happy is the to be college student (that’s what it looks like, his suitcase reminds me of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and George’s traveling bag.) I, like the dog, wasn’t happy about my brother’s leaving home. I was 14 at the time, and the three years that he would be gone seemed forever.
I have never seen “Getting Ready” or “Going Out”, and even though these were in the 1930’s and 1940’s I don’t think things have changed that much.