FALL/WINT5 r t 0 i 0

NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM BOARD OF TRUSTEES FROM THE DIRECTOR Lee Williams, President Michelle Gillett, First Vice President Perri Petricca, Second Vice President Steven Spielberg, Third Vice President James W. Ireland, Treasurer Mark Selkowitz, Clerk It's been a wonderful summer at th e Western frontier from a perspective based Ruby Bridges Hall Norman Rockwell Museum. The exh ibi­ on visual culture. Ann Fitzpatrick Brown Alice Carter tion Frederic Remington and the American Lansing E. Crane Civil War: A Ghost Story, about the famed In November, the Museum will open a Michael P Daly artist and illustrator of the American brilliant jewel of an exhibition. More than Catharine B. Deely Peter de Seve West, set th e stage for a summer of west­ Words: Artists' Illustrated Letters from the John V Frank ward-focused fe stivities. The season was Smithsonian's Archives ofAmerican Art Dr. Mary K. Grant launched in June with a boot stompin' hoe­ will showcase beautifully illustrated let­ Ellen Kahn Jeffrey Kleiser down attended by Museum fri ends who ters, including some whimsical works by Mark Krentzman donned great-looking Western attire, dined Norman Rockwell. Stay tuned for a season Deborah S. McMenamy happily at an outdoor barbeque, danced up of fa sc inating programs that will include Wendell Minor a storm to a country-western band, and bid th e art and etiquette of letter writing, inti­ Barbara Nessim Thomas L. Pulling wildly at a live auction. T he event raised a mate talks by artists, a handwriting expert, Tom Rockwell whopping $96,000 to support our educa­ and even a world-famous advice columnist! Diana Walczak tional programs! T he Western-themed fe s­ Richard B. Wilcox Peter Williams tiviti es continued in July in Santa Fe with I'm thrilled to announce the Museum's Jamie Williamson a wonderful reception for Museum friends new travel program that will com-

TRUSTEES EMERITI at the exquisite adobe home of renowned mence this April with a tour of Norman

Lila Wilde Berle sculptor Malcolm Alexander, hosted by Rockwell 's Italy. Norman was an avid Jane P. Fitzpatrick National Council Members Betsey and travcler who found inspiration for his Paul Ivory David McKearnan. masterpieces all over the world and we David L. Klausmeyer Norma G. Ogden have custom-designed a seri es of excit­ Henry H Williams, Jr. The Museum's popular Thursday evening ing journeys th at will retrace h is steps,

HONORARY TRUSTEE programs in July and August enhanced beginning with a trip to one of Norman

S. Lane Faison , Jr our understanding of the Wes t with and Molly's favorite destinations-Italy! stimulating lectures and entertaining We will visit Sicil y and then Rome, where Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director performances. Both Calamity Jane and we wi ll spend time with Norman's son, portfolio Theodore Roosevelt dropped by. Dr. Peter, who wi ll introduce us to many of Volume 23, Issue 2, Fa ll/Winter 2006 Homer Meade gave a powerful reading hi s father's favorite places and give us a Kimberly Rawson , Editor Jeremy Clowe, Editorial Assistant ofW.E.B. DuBois's 1903 treatise, The special tour of h is sculpture stud io. It is Mary Herrmann, Toni Kenny, Souls of Black Folk. sure to be an unforgettable experience! Graphic Design

Contact us bye-mail at: Guest curator Dr. Alexander Nemerov has We're planning a fun-fi lled event for fami­ communications(ru nrm.org taken a fresh look at how h istori cal events lies and fri ends at the height of the foliage inAuence subsequent generations in the season-complete with the best of the Portfolio is published by Norman Rock­ well Museum at Stockbridge. Inc., and exh ibition, Frederic {{emington and the Berkshire's fa ll produce and comestibles: is sent free to all members. © 2006 by American Civil War. It is a thoughtful and cri spy apples, donuts, hot cid er, pumpkins Norman Rockwell Museum at Stock­ bridge. All rights re served bold ex hibition that examincs how the C ivil and more ! The opening party for Stuffed War, as experienced by Remington through Shirts: SculfJtural Scarecrows In spired by Cover: Woman with Scarecrow © 1936 photography and literature of the period, Rockwell, a juried exhibition of scare­ SEPS : Licensed by Curtis Publishi ng, Indianapolis, IN affected his depictions of the West. The crows created by artists, will be held on Museum has published an informative Saturday, October 7, from 3 to 5 p.m. catalogue to accompany the exhibition that See yo u there! is avai lable through our store. A Remington symposium will be held at the Museum Laurie Norton Moffatt on October 28, with keynote speaker Dr. Nemerov and a host of Remington scholars whose presentations wil l deepen our under­ Kids Frcc 1'\ cry Day! 1\ Gift to Fa mili es fr0 1l1 standing of the Ameri can experience of the CounqyClU'tains. and ThE REO LBlNINN

2 PORTFOLIO Norman Rockwell year-by-year, 1965

III hope this painting might inspire the youth of this land to appreciate this man who believed so much in the value of education."

Norman Rockwell in a letter to Donald P. Lindsay, Lincoln First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Spokane, Washington

In 1965, two years after leaving The Saturday Evening Post as their most popular cover artist, Norman Rockwell, 71, was busy as ever. The Skippy Peanut Butter ads he had done for the 1963 Best Foods "Whispering Sweepstakes" had produced a winner. The prize was an original Rockwell portrait of the winner, and the winner turned out to be a family of five­ more than Rockwell had bargained for.

While working on the family portrait, Rockwell began a life­ size painting of Abraham Lincoln for Lincoln First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Spokane, Wash ington. In 1962, the company's president, Donald P. Lindsay, had commissioned a portrait of Abraham Lincoln for the lobby of the firm's new building, set to open in Considering > • 1964. their institution was a young one, having been formed from a merger in 1950 when they assumed the name Lincoln Savings, and because Spokane was a youthful and growing city, Lindsay requested a young, vigorous Lincoln. Norman Rockwell painting Lincoln the Railsplitter 1965 . Rockwell responded exuberantly, saying he felt Lincoln Photo by Louie Lamone was our greatest American and "the greatest model that

FALL/WINTER 2006 3 ever happened." He decided to picture him in a way that On January 19, Rockwell received a call from 20th Century­ emphasized his 6-foot-4-inch stature and to include a symbolic Fox asking him to go to Hollywood that summer to paint a axe and chopping block and book on one side of the figure series of portraits for a remake of John Ford's 1939 movie and a picture of the White House on the other, alluding to Stagecoach. Rockwell was thrilled. In the interim, Rockwell the company's growth and achievement. He would make the worked on Lincoln as well as new sketches of Nathaniel painting eight feet tall. Hawthorne's Hester Prynne and William Thackeray's Becky Sharp, for a proposed b~:lOk on famous fi ctional women. In May 1963, Lindsay asked Rockwell to appear at th e unveiling He started his annual calendar illustration for Boy Scouts of the portrait. Knowing Rockwell had recently traveled to of America and a Pepsi Cola ad of a jolly Santa Claus, and India (to paint Nehru) and Yugoslavia (to paint Tito), Lindsay he continued work begun the previous year on a series of added, "If you could find your way to Pakistan and Yugoslavia, drawings of American women who had sacrifi ced their lives I am sure you could find your way to Spokane." In September, in war. These were to be reinterpreted in bas-relief bronze after receiving a preliminary color sketch from Rockwell , tablets by his son Peter in Peter's Rome studio and installed Lindsay had his designer choose carpeting, drapes, and a ceiling in the Bell Tower of Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge, color to complement the painting, and he gave Rockwell a New Hampshire. July I, 1964 deadline. Rockwell replied that 1964 was an election year and he was obliged to paint portraits of candidates After leaving the Post in 1963, Rockwell agreed to work for Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry Goldwater for Look and portraits Look, a magazine that used abundant photos and some of their wives for McCall 's. illustrations for its focus on current events. The Problem We All Live With, Rockwell's first commission for Look, gave In June 1964, Lindsay sent a curt reply stating that he was readers throughout the country a look at school desegregation disappointed with Rockwell's inability to meet the deadline in the south. Portraits of presidential candidates and a 1964 and that there was a considerable blank space on the west painting for NASA's space program followed. Murder in wall of their main room. He asked Rockwell to accept a new Mississippi, the first of three Look commissions in 1965, shed deadline of no later than January 1,1965, and reminded him light on another aspect of racial prejudice in America. It that he and his wife were expected for the unveiling. A letter produced stunned and complex reactions from viewers. After in August urged Rockwell for reassurance that he would fini shing the piece, Rockwell , on his calendar, summarized meet the new deadline. In November, Lindsay wrote to say his own visceral reaction as " bi g nerves a tingle." he was releasing information to the media and that if the painting was not completed by the first of the year, Rockwell By early spring, Rockwell finished Murder in MississipPi , would put them in a very embarrassing position. the Pepsi Cola Santa and the massive 7-foot-4-inch Lincoln the Railsplitter. Lincoln First Federal had thousands of prints When he didn't receive the painting by January I , Lindsay, made of the final painting and sent them to customers now sounding resigned, asked Rockwell for the tentative with a copy of a letter they asked Rockwell to write about date of its completion and when the unveiling might take Lincoln . The letters, reproduced by a lithographer, looked place. In the meantime, the company, whi ch had published so original that, to this day, the Norman Rockwell Museum Rockwell's preliminary sketch in Reader's Digest, had received receives correspondence from people who insist they own numerous requests for reprints. Sin ce the final painting the original. In August, after returning from the set of would be different from the original color sketch, and as the Stagecoach, Rockwell again heard from Lindsay regarding company was receiving so many requests, Lindsay argued that his presence at an unveiling. But he told Lindsay that, after he needed a new color sketch to send out. Noting this would his wild and hecti c trip, he had to concentrate on his work further delay the final painting, Rockwell declined th e reques t. for Stagecoach. In 1985, Lincoln Mutual Savings Bank

4 PORTFOLIO Norman Rockwell pa inting the first ve rsion of Stagecoach, 1965. Photo by Lou ie Lam one.

(known as Lincoln First Federal prior to 1976) merged into draw or paint and often are concealed in gloves or pockets, Washington Mutual Savings Bank and moved from the Rockwell seemed to look for opportunities to include them, "Lincoln" building to a new location. Rockwell's painting, no such as in Freedom of Worship and on the dying man in the longer a symbol for the bank, was sold. In April 1992, People foreground of Murder in Mississippi. Faces and hands are magazine pictured Ross Perot gazing up at the painting in the most expressive parts of human bei ngs and to exclude or his art collection. minimize them would have been to forfeit the opportunity to fully express a story. Rockwell's next work for Look was painted to accompany How Goes the War on Poverty, an article by Sargent Shriver Later in the year, Rockwell completed a third commission on the problems facing the VISTA (Volunteers in Service for Look. Typical of his pattern of painting something to America) program. The illustration was captioned, "The lighthearted after a stretch of serious works, Picasso versus poor are cynical. They have been exploited, and they know Sargent looked at 1960s society in a style reminiscent of it." Rockwell first considered painting hands of different Rockwell 's Post cover subjects. When he began work on races, but then decided to show one strong young hand the painting that summer, his initial concept was a kind of grasping a frail elderly hand, against a background of Native reprise of The Connoisseur, in which the painting and the American, African American, elderly and young faces. museum patron are mismatched. He would show a girl in Though hands are one of the hardes t things for an artist to curlers and stretch pants looking at John Singer Sargent's

FALL/ W I NTER 2006 5 1897 Portrait of Mrs. George Swinton members Alex Cord, Slim Pickens (of in an Art Institute of Chicago gallery. whom Rockwell said a "lousy model-­ But the idea developed into a 1960s late, moved all the time and talk, talk, housewife and her daughter, both in talk"), and Mike Connors (of whom curlers, viewing Sargent's portrait, Rockwell said "Mike posed fine"). juxtaposed with an art student in tight jeans and a turtleneck viewing On July 10, the Rockwells traveled to Pablo Picasso's 1931 portrait, The Denver, Colorado, 56 miles southeast Red Arm Chair. The change pushed of the movie's second location, where the painting into a more complex Rockwell painted Van Heflin ("wonderful statement about society, making it guy"). On July 14, after asking to be especially relevant to Look's readers. closer to the set, the cast moved to quarters in Boulder where, from July In June, Rockwell received the first of 14 to 19, Rockwell painted the remaining several attempts to lure him back to the cast: Ann-Margret, Keenan Wynn ("whata Post-a letter from its managing editor, Bill Emerson, and character"), Red Buttons, Bing Crosby, Bob Cummings ("awful then a visit from art editor Frank Kilker. It isn't known what guy"), and Stefanie Powers ("wonderful girl"). proposal the Post made, but Rockwell dismissed it as "a cure for my nostalgia." By the end of June, Rockwell finished his Rockwell had spent a lot of time in the early 1960s sketching 1967 Boy Scout calendar, Breakthrough for Freedom, of six and painting portraits from life with a group of Stockbridge scouts from six nations marching at a Jamboree. "Not art, artists. During trips to India and Russia in 1962 and 1964, he but adequate," Rockwell proclaimed. During these projects, did a series of portraits from life that were featured in American Rockwell also prepared for Stagecoach. He read both the 1939 Artist. Confident of this more spontaneous work, Rockwell screenplay and a draft of the new version, studied photos of tried to convince Martin Rackin, the movie's producer, to use the actors, and negotiated his contract. A travel lover and his oil sketches of the actors. "I just feel they are a lot more a frustrated actor, Rockwell was getting the opportunity to exciting than the type of portrait I do from photographs," he paint portraits of cast members in Hollywood and to go on argued. "After all, Stagecoach is an exciting, dramatic thing location in Colorado to research scenes of the stagecoach and I think the more exciting and dramatic type of sketches bouncing and careening on its perilous journey through would be a little more appropriate." But Rackin preferred Wyoming Indian territory. What most excited him, however, the more polished, detailed portraits based on photographs, was his chance to playa bit part-a card player named and told Rockwell "the many years of Saturday Evening Post Busted Flush who appears in an early barroom scene. training that you have given the American public has become your own trap." Rockwell's portraits, along with symbols To warm up for Hollywood, Rockwell made several portrait he created that represented the essence of each character, sketches in his studio, including one of Anne Lamone, appeared with the actors' credits at the end of the movie. daughter of his assistant Louie Lamone, and ofIan Story, a psychologist at the nearby Austen Riggs Center. On June 28, When Rockwell returned to Stockbridge on July 22, he started Rockwell and his wife Molly departed for Hollywood. They roughing out a 14-foot-Iong sketch of the stagecoach on were met by Pete Todd and his wife Zev. Todd, a Los Angeles its journey to Cheyenne. The next day he decided to limit photographer who often helped Rockwell when he worked it to 8 feet. From time to time he would have producer in Southern California, would assist him on the Stagecoach Rackin send him reference material from Hollywood or project. From July 1 to 9, Rockwell posed and painted cast information about the rebuses. At one point he requested

6 PORTFOLIO an Indian wig and costume, in order to Kid. You'll be Dead if you Don't: a tell­ pose an Indian falling off a horse. Rather all expose by sister journalists Muriel than hire a model for the pose, Rockwell Davidson and Janet Rale, who posed as a had himself photographed, lying on bit-part actress and publicity coordinator the floor with his arms and legs flailing while secretly keeping a journal of the about as if rolling down a mountainside. movie's production. He also had Denver photographer Art Bilsten take photos of Mt. Wilson, near On September 1, Rockwell received word Telluride, to get just the right perspective that Lady Bird Johnson wanted his 1964 and color of the impressive mountainous Look portrait of her husband. Rockwell landscape. Bilsten sent transparencies of complied. In 1967 the portrait would be the mountain, taken between 6:30 and part of the imbroglio over Peter Hurd's 7 a.m., and in the evening, when the portrait ofJohnson, commissioned as the Norman Rockwell poses with Ann-Margret on late sun cast a warm glow. Rockwell was the set of Stagecoach. Photographer unknown. official White House portrait. Johnson so conditioned from his Post cover days complained that Hurd's portrait was "the to having his work scrutinized for accuracy that he expressed ugliest thing I ever saw" and pointed to Rockwell 's as a really concern that people might recognize Mt. Wilson, though the good likeness of himself. After the portrait was rejected by movie's setting was supposed to be Wyoming. Johnson, Hurd gave it to the National Portrait Gallery.

Perhaps remembering the work required for Lincoln the In early October, the Rockwells departed for a three-week Railsplitter-a 7-foot-4-inch-tall canvas that had vacation to Mexico where they visited Taxco, Tepotzlan, required a pyramid of platforms to perch on to paint the Cuernavaca, Mexico City, and Xochicalpo. When Rockwell top portions-Rockwell realized he was not up to painting returned he was ready to tackle his Sargent versus Picasso a landscape on that scale. He wrote Rackin it was essential painting, which had been giving him problems. When it was that he not make it 8-feet-long but half that size. Confident finished and Look art director Allen Hurlburt said he loved that a smaller version would be fine, Rackin gave Rockwell it, Rockwell was relieved. He then concentrated on finishing the go-ahead and added the news that he intended to include the mountains and then the Indians in the stagecoach chase Rockwell 's name in the screen credits. "This should make scene. By Thanksgiving, he shipped it off. yo u a very big man in Stockbridge. I never heard of Matisse being in a picture or Braque. See what happens when you Rockwell's last work of 1965 was the first painting in a have influential friends." The final painting of the stagecoach series of eight, annual gift-catalogue covers for Top Value chase scene was 4-feet-long. Moviegoers saw it in the Stamps. The Music Man pictures a boy in cowboy attire center of the movie house poster surrounded by cameos of accompanying his song on a guitar purchased with Top the ten actors' portraits. Value Stamps. A little girl standing in the background holds her hands over her ears to prevent hearing his discordant The artwork for Stagecoach inspired an exhibition of 96 singing and strumming. Rockwell remarked it was "awfully Rockwell paintings and drawings at the Municipal Art Gallery corny, but it's what they want." in Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, from January 4 to February EDITOR'S NOTE: The artwork from Stagecoach is on exhibition 6, 1966. Look devoted four pages of their March 8, 1966 at the Museum through October 29. issue to Norman Rockwell: 'silent' film star, about Rockwell 's participation in the movie, getting a jump on the Saturday Lr DA SZEKELY PERO is curator of Norman Rockwell Collections Evening Post's April 9, 1966 story, Stagecoach, 'Do it Right at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

FALL/WI T E R 2006 7 A Rockwell Rediscovered The Tale of Two Paintings

De tai l of Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties

Replica of Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties

Breakmg Home Ties, c)1954 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN.

On April 6, 2006, Norman Rockwell Museum held a press ing the Rockwell , most notably repeated requests from conference to announce that a real-life art mystery had been Ross Perot. solved. An iconic Norman Rockwell painting, not previously known to have been missing, had been found. The painting, Breaking Home Ties is well -traveled. It has been included Breaking Home T ies, first appeared on the September 25, 1954 in a number of international exhibitions from the 1950S to cover of T he Saturday Evening Post. 70S, most notably in Moscow and Cairo in 1964. In 2002, Trachte's children approached the Norman Rockwell Muse­ In 1960, Breaking Home Ties was purchased from Norman um about housing the painting for safe keeping. For the first Rockwell by his friend and fe ll ow artist, Don Trachte, Sr. time in decades, the painting was put on view in 2003 at an Trachte, a cartoonist for the syndicated comic strip Henry, exhibition about Rockwell 's Vermont years at the Museum. was a talented and multi-faceted artist who spent hours in Rockwell 's studio observing his technique and painting Prior to exhibition, the Museum took Breaking Home Ties to methodology. In 1970, Trachtc and his wife separated and, an art conservation lab for cleaning, as it had acquired a layer of the eight original paintings in their coll ection, the one of grime due to its proximity to a wood stove in Trachte's of greatest personal value to Trachte was clearly Breaking home. When it arrived back at the M useum, curators closely Home Ties. As part of the divorce settlem ent the paintings examined some discrepancies in the painting from the origi­ were given to the children , however the parents could hang nal magazin e cover tear sheet. The boy's face was not quite the paintings in their respective homes. Trachte kept the the same, and the coloration was slightly different. Rockwell painting and his wife kept the additional seven paintings. Over the years, the family receive d numerous The curators concluded that these variati ons were due to inquiries from coll ectors and dealers interes ted in purchas- the effects of time as well as the painting's history of travel,

8 PORTFOLIO Dave and Don Trachte, Jr. solve the mystery of the false waillhal had sheltered Rockwell's original painting.

including the fact that it had experienced severe climatatic thinly-paneled wall where the painting hung, next to an inset changes. Most importantly they held th e bel ief that the paint­ bookcase, he noticed a gap in the paneling. When he pushed ing had, at some point, been poorly conserved. Questions the wall, for the panel seemed to move freely. He then pulled about the authenticity of the painting were raised but, given the panelin g away, about an inch, to look behind the wall its provenance and the understanding that the painting had and saw the edges of some small paintings and what he been retouched by a less than deft hand, they were put aside. thought was th e edge of a large painting.

In May 2005 when Don Trachte, Sr. died, ownership and According to Don, "The wall pulled quite hard, but was access to their father's studio and home moved to h is four movable. We pulled the wall about six in ches and I saw the children. In late 2005, the authenticity of another painting two Gene Pelham paintings hanging on a clean, paneled owned by the Trachte family, a Mead Schaeffer, was ques­ wall , behind the wall, and identical to the wall that we were tioned by Illustration House in New York, who had consid­ moving. I knew in an instant that I was looking at the eight ered it for inclusion in an exhibition. paintings di sputed in my parents divorce in 1973.

Don Trachte, Jr. began, earl y this year, to ques tion what he "We moved th e wall a little more and I could see the Mead believed to be his family's collection of ori ginal paintings Schaeffer painting .. . I looked behind the wall at an angle by Arlington artists. At first he thought nothing had been and told Dave that I believed th e Rockwell was behind the done to the paintings; then, that there were conservation next wall. We began to move the second wall and, as we did, problems; then, that his father may have tried to do his own we saw the tail of the dog emerge, then the truck and the conservation work; and then, that his father may have made boy. We stopped and looked at the boy and knew instantly copies of the paintings. It was plausible, if inconceivabl e, that that this was the original." his father had made a replica of the original Rockwell. What was revealed was that it appeared that Don Trachte, Sr. In February 2006, Dave and his brother Don began a made replicas of the seven most important works to him in concerted effort to search for clues about the painting in hi s collection and secretly hid the originals. In his lifetime, their father's home, which had remained untouched since he had been especially zealous in protecting his family's his death almost a year earlier. Dave found two paintings by inheritance. The Trachte children beli eve that this was the artist George Hughes in Trachte's studio that were almost underlying motiva tion that drove their father to this unusual exactly the same and, disturbed by his di scovery, immedi­ and improbable act of having copied the eight works. ately called Don. The brothers then found film prints in the studio, which revealed that their father had possessed two, EDiTOR'S NOTE : A Rockwell Rediscovered: The Tale of Two Paint­ nearly identical versions of Breaking Home Ties. ings will be on view at the Museum through October 21.

On Thursday, March 16, Dave began looking for places in KIMBERLY RAWSO is Associate Director for Marketing and his father's house where a painting could be hidden. On a Communications at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

FALL/WINTER 2006 9 brush ~tpoke~ Character is n1Y chief concern when painting a head. I want to create an individual with a definite personality. Nomum Rockwell, {ronl. My Adventures as an Illustrator

Left to right: NO n7WI1 Rockwell Museum Director Laurie Nortoll Moffatt presents actor Sam Waterston, a longtime Frederic Hemington {an, with a parody of NoT/1wn Rockwell's Triple Self-Portrait, featuring the "Law and Order" sta r's likeness. Cala allctioneer Charles Flilli. Ja ck and Jane Fitzpatrick. Deb and Jim Mc /\ len( 117 )'. /\ lusician Bobby Sweet. I lolly Cole­ man, Tyr

10 PO RTFOLIO Snapshots from The Rockwell Remington Ranch Ga]a, June 10

Left to right: Denise Ulick, Wi lliam Caiigari, Jr., al/d J-Jop e Sullivan . Da n Cain, Laurie orton Moffatt, and Lynn and Sam Waierston. Jamie and Lois Williamson and Sam Waters/oil . Gala co-chairs Sherrye Dantzker alld Kathy Cain . Auctioll items and table decoratiolls. Lynda I\ [ulvey and Bernie Shaw. Kif) Sheridan and Matt Il eim engage ill a (ri el1dly game o("draw. "

FALL/WINTE R 2006 11 brush ~trCJke~

The Norman Remington's Ghosts Alexander Nemerov, Ph.D ., noted art in the mid-1880s, just when two Rockwell Code author and professor of art hi story dominant attitudes emerged nation­ at Yale University, explained his all y about the C ivil War: Reconcili­ A famous museum .. . a shock- groundbreaking theory regarding the ation and the Lost Cause. "It was a ing murder . .. a distinguished influences of Ameri can Civil War time when Southerners were viewed symbologist ... secrets written imagery on artist Frederic Remington's increasingly-even in the North-as in code- no, it's not that art of the West in a lecture at the glorious heroes fi ghting against all " at I1er "t s ory. Museum on June 11, 2006. odds for their homes and honor," re­ marked Nemerov, who also curated T he exhibition, Frederic Remington the exhibition. "It was a time when and the American Civil War: A Ghost former enemies shook hands and the Story, opened on June 10, illuminat- wa r's enormous bloodshed became ing Nemerov's thesis with a haunting increasingly repressed and romanti­ collection of Remington's depictions cized, he sa id." of the American West. Masterworks such as W hat An Unbranded Cow Has "A consummate reporter-artist, Fred­ Cost (1895) are displayed alongside eric Remington became best known Associate Director for Marketing and photographic prints from the C ivil War, for the vigor and authenticity of his Communications Kimberly Rawson (far left) with cas t and crew members from The Norman which appear eerily similar in composi­ illustrations," noted Chief C ura- Rockwell Code, including writer/director Alfred tion. T hough Remington rarely painted tor Stephanie Plunkett. "While he Thomas Catalfo (at podium) and actor Mike Walsh (far right). defined national sensibilities through romanticized images of the cowboy Since its debut on the Internet in May, on the American frontier, this exhibi­ The Norman Rockwell Code was an tion brings together a rich tapestry of instant sensation, attracting over 1 visual materials and cultural artifacts million hits on the movie's Web site, that invite a new understanding of international press coverage, and a spot Remington's West." in Entertainment Weekly magazine's T he Must List. Frederi c Remington produced more than 3,000 drawings and paintings, The Norman Rockwell Museum is 22 bronze sculptures, a novel, a the fictional setting for this short film Broadway play, and over 100 articles parody based on The Da Vinci Code. and stories. At the end of the 19th Alexa"" nder Nemerov On June 25, a sold out, world-premiere century, Remington immortalized screening of the film was held at the C ivil War scenes, Dr. Nemerov specu­ the Western experi ence. His roman­ real Norman Rockwell Museum. lates that the conflict haunted his work ti cized vision of the heroic nature of in compelling and unexpected ways. American settlers defined a nation's The movie can be viewed at character as one of independence, www.thenormanrockwell code.com Frederic Remington (1861-1909), individuali sm, and stoi c heroism, noted illustrator, painter, sculptor, qualities that still resonate in Ameri­ and author, started making Western can popular culture.

12 P ORTFOLIO A Scout's Honor

wanted me to pose. I remember him holding my chin as he showed me the way he wa nted me to look down the rai lroad tracks for the coming train. He th en spoke with Alex (the ranch's horse wrangler, who portrays the boy's father in the picture) about his pose. The suit he asked me to wear was a littl e large, but Stephanie Plunkett. Claire Williams and they pinned it in the back so it would fit. Laurie Norton Moffatt.

Portfolio: Did you know when the cover would be published? A Model Employee Model Robert Waldrop posing in front of Breaking Norman Rockwell Museum guide Home Ties during a recent vis it to the Museum. Waldrop: No. EvelY Wednesday I drove Claire W illiams was awarded the Norman Rockwell attended the Boy my Mom to the grocery store. On Governor's prestigious Hospital­ Scout Jamboree in Irvine, California, September 29, 1954, while she was ity Award from the Massachusetts and the Philmont Scout Ranch, in shopping, I headed toward th e maga­ State Office of Travel and Tourism Cimarron, New Mexico, in the sum­ zine rack at the grocery store and, from at a special awards dinner held on mer of 1953- It was during this time 20 feet away, saw myself on the cover of March 29. Willi ams received the that he began developing the concept the Post! I was very surprised! My Mom award in recognition of her service for one of his most popular cover Post bought the whole stack of magazines at Norman Rockwell Museum. illustrations, Breaking Home Ties. Robert that day. Waldrop was a teenage Eagle Scout Years later, in 2003, a friend told who was working at the ranch at the me th at she had just seen th e Break­ NRMWins time of Rockwell's visit. Because of this ing Home Ties pai nting at the Norman confluence of events he was to become Rockwell Museum. I had never seen Design Awards immortalized as the college-bound son the original painting, so I planned a Norman Rockwell Museum has in Rockwell's famous painting. Waldrop vis it to the M useum to see 'my cover.' received six publications awards tells the Portfolio more about his exh'aor­ I encl edup having to cancel the trip, for creative work completed in dinary experience. but this April, when the news broke 2005. The prestigious awards are about the original painting being found from the New England Museum Portfolio: How did you come to pose for in Don Trachte's wall, I contacted the Association and the national orga­ Nonnan Rockwell? Museum, When I heared that it was nization, the American Association Robert Waldrop: I was introduced to on exhibit, I made plans to visit Stock­ of Museums, who award excellence Norman Rockwell on July 27,1953, at bridge as soon as possible. in design, production, and effec­ the Philmont Scout Ranch. He asked Seeing .the original was an emo­ tive communication in all aspects me if! would like to pose for a paint­ ti onal and dramatic moment. T he of museum publishing on paper. ing for the Post. At that time I wasn't staff in terviewed me for the Museum's Awards were received by designers sure who he or the Post was, but I sa id I archives and also showed me all the Mary Herrmann and Toni Kenny, would do it. materials used to create the painting. project director Kimberly Rawson Mr. Rockwell talked about the Being a model for Mr. Rockwell was a and educator Melinda Georgeson. theme of the painting and how he high point of my life.

FAL L / WINTER 2006 13 When Words Letter from Allen Tupper True to Jane True (detail) © 1947 Courtesy of American Art. Smithsonian are Not Enough Institution. Ad rights reserved.

Suffering from e-mail fatigue? Information overload? In a "The personal letters featured in More Than Words uncover world giddy with high-speed connections and hooked on new insights into the personalities and creative processes instant messaging, More Than Words: Artists' Illustrated of some of America's finest artists," said Liza Kirwin, the Letters from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, exhibition's curator and curator of manuscripts at the Ar­ opcning at the Norman Rockwell Museum on November 11 chives of American Art. The exhibition was inspired by 2006, reconnects us with the vanishing tradition of episto­ Kirwin's book of the same name, published by Princeton Ar­ lary correspondence. The exhibition showcases more than chitectural Press (2005)' The exhibition has been organized 65 handwritten, illustrated letters from some of the most by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service important artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, including (SITES) and the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian In­ Alexander Calder, Dale Chihuly, Thomas Eakins, Winslow stitution. orman Rockwell Museum will be the first venue Homer, Frida Kahlo, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, and to host the exhibition before it begins a lO-city national tour. Andrew Wyeth. For these artists, words were not enough. Throughout the exhibition, letters are arranged in sections by "Like Rockwell, many of the artists in this exhibition made a theme. The sections include "Bon Voyage," containing letters steady income from their illustrations, so it is not surprising written to and from travelers; "I Do," consisting ofletters writ­ that they would embellish their letters with a sketch or two," ten from the heart; "Plays on Words," featuring creative letters says Laurie Norton Moffatt, director of the Norman Rock­ using metaphors, puns or rebuses (picture puzzles); "Visual well Museum. "What is fascinating about More than Words Events," describing key personal, professional and political is how the intimate process of letter writing offered them a events; "Graphic Instructions," providing illustrated directives greater freedom of self-expression, stretching their powers to the reader; and "Thank You," showing letters of gratitude. of observation and ingenuity, often in the most whimsical and charming ways. The illustrations do more than simply To complement the exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Mu­ enliven the letters-they provide a potent sense of immediacy seum, rarely seen poems and letters written and illustrated in the artist's life." by orman Rockwell selected from the Museum's archives will also be on view. Several pictographs (words represented "One should never forget that the power of words is limited," by pictures) by Rockwell will give viewers an opportunity to writes painter Walter Kuhn in a 1913 note illustrated with ani­ sharpen decoding skills, and three amusing school-absence mated sketches of pinch-faced ladies in berets. His decorated letters Rockwell wrote for his son Tommy, each illustrated pages and the works of the other artists in the exhibition pro­ with the reason for his absence, show Rockwell at his most vide clues to their creative personalities through spontaneous lighthearted. Unlike most of his work-for-hire which was drawings, caricatures, watercolors, or collages. Kuhn, who painstakingly planned-out and executed in final form in oil was an organizer of the International Exhibition of Mod- paint, Rockwell's letter embellishments are often in water­ ern Art of 1913, known as the Armory Show, was a painter, color and are always whimsical, unselfconscious, unstudied etcher, lithographer, and popular cartoonist, and his letters to images taken straight from his imagination and imbued with wife Vera display his flair for caricature. Sculptor Alexander Rockwell's legendary sense of humor. Calder made a map to his home in bold strokes of color that looks just like one of his mobiles. A letter from fiery artist KIM BERLY RAWSON is Associate Director for Marketing and Frida Kahlo is sealed with passionate red lipstick kisses. Communications at the Norman .Rockwell Museum.

14 PORTFOLIO IN THE GALLERIES spotlight

A Rockwell Rediscovered: Saturday Evening Post Covers The Tale of Two Paintings ON VIEW THROUGH JANUARY 28, 2007 Take a trip through time with Norman Rockwell 's Saturday ON VIEW T il ROUGH OCTOBER 21, 2006 Evening Post covers, from his first illustrati on, printed in 1916, Through an improbable conver­ when th e artist was only 22. Rockwell painted 321 different gence of ci rcumstances, an iconic imagcs for the weekly publication through 1963. This collec­ painting, not known to have been tion of original tear sheets is a remarkabl e visual history of an missing, has been found after artist's developmcnt and a fa scinating pi ctorial summary of more than 35 ycars. Norman life in 20 th-century America. Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties was painted for the Septembcr 25, 1954 covcr of The Saturday Stuffed Shirts: Sculptural Scarecrows Evening Post. T his exhibition tells th e story of a serics of events that Inspired by Rockwell led to the astonishing discovcry of the hidden existence of th e OCTOBER 7 THROUGH 31,2006 original painting and an expertly crafted repl ica. Celebrate harvest season at th e Norman Rockwell Museum! Visit this fall and be spooked and sparked by a special Frederic Remington and the exhibition of scarecrows created by artists. Each scarecrow is unique, but all are based on the art of Norman Rockwell. American Civil War: A Ghost Story The scarecrows wi ll be standing pati ent wa tch over the ON VIEW THROUGH OCTOBER 29, 2006 M useum's lovely lawns and fi eld s through October. They'll At the dawn of the American be waiting for yo u! Century, Frederic Remington, an artist best known for hi s More than Words: Artists' Illustrated illustrations in th e period ica Is of the day, defin ed national Letters from the Smithsonian's va lues through h is romanticized Archives of American Art depictions of cowboys on the NOVEM BE R ll, 2006 THROUGH JANUARY 14, 2007 American frontier. He created .' More than Words: Illustrated u...... t. ~ .... Of powerful images that conveyed " ." .., Letters from the Smithsonian's a sense of strong individual- Archives of American Art is an ism and identity that was embraced by President Theodore exhibition featuring intimate Roosevelt and millions of other admirers who encountered works of art by some of the his art in the press. In this landmark exhibition, guest curator 19th-and 20th-centuries' most and art historian Alexander Ncmerov, Ph.D., of Ya le Uni­ admired artists, including versity, examin es the impact of Civil War photography on Alexander Calder, Dale Chihuly, Remington's work. Frederic Edwin C hurch, Frida Ka hlo, Norman Rockwell and This exhibition is sponso red by , I, B~&'NK Andrew Wyeth. T his exh ibition Breaking Home Ties (Detail) @1954 SEPS Licensed by Curtis Publishi ng, wi ll appeal to anyone curious for an in side glimpse into the Indianapolis, IN The Bronco Buster, Frederic Remington. ()1895. Coll ection of the Frederic Remington Art Museum. Letter from Paul Bransom to Kicki Hays (detail) professional, personal, and creative lives of somc of the art 1('1947 Courtesy of American Art, Smi thsonian Insti tu tion. All rights reserved. world 's bi ggest names.

FALL/W I N TER 2 0 06 15 Norman Rockwell's Italy

April 22 - May 3, 2007

Rome • Garfagnana • Carrara

This is the first of our series of travel programs de­ signed to retrace Norman Rockwell's world travels, revealing some of the inspirations and influences in his life and art. With Museum Director Laurie Norton Moffatt, you will visit some of Europe's finest museums, view artistic treasures and historic sights, revel in extraordinary landscapes, and dine at Norman Rockwell's favorite bistros and ristorantes. Sculptor Peter Rockwell, Norman's son, will be our guide in Rome, where he will give a personal tour of his sculpture studio and share family stories over Norman Rockwell relaxes in Italy. wine on his terrace. Peter and Laurie will lead an You will be receiving a travel brochure in the mail for this program, additional art and sculpture tour, post-trip, to the managed by Siemer 6 Hand Travel, with the tour itinerary and cost. Marble Mountains of Carrara and the beautiful For more infonnation, call Lynda Mulvey, special events coordinator, cities of Lucca and Pisa. at 413-298-4100, ext. 235.

NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM No n Profit Organization 9 Glendale Road U.S. Postal;c po Box 308 PAID Stockbrid ge, M A 01262 Permit '10. " Stoc kb rid gc J\ \\ 01262 ww\V.nrm.org