Norman Rockwell
Knight Looking Through Glass
1930

About the Item

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Right Norman Rockwell painted Christmas: Knight Looking in Stained Glass Window for the December 6, 1930 cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Depicting a knight on guard duty who forlornly watches a jovial Christmas party from afar, the painting exemplifies the images Rockwell produced for the cover of The Post in the 1930s, a decade in which he ultimately produced nine images for the magazine. Compositionally, the painting maintains the vignette-style format that all of The Post’s artists adhered to when creating its cover art up to this period. The figure and his setting are also accompanied by the horizontal black lines of the publication’s masthead, a design feature that would disappear by 1940. Rockwell’s talent and vision undeniably aided The Post in making the transition away from its traditional layout towards a more sophisticated design as his career and association with the magazine continued. An artist with an unmatched gift for narration, he maintained the sense of humor and rigorous compositional design he had always included in his paintings, but now he achieved a new sense of naturalism as he increasingly rendered scenes in a fully articulated time and place. Works such as Christmas: Knight Looking in a Stained Glass Window foreshadow this stylistic direction. Though the compositional elements of the scene are still set against a white background, the remarkable details Rockwell includes all serve to enhance his narrative. The warm light that bathes the feasting revelers inside contrasts starkly with the cool palette he utilizes to render the knight and window, which is dusted with a layer of snow. The positioning of the knight himself, hands clutched closely to his body and subtly hunched over, as well as his billowing cloak, further indicate the setting as a bitterly cold winter evening. The effect is such that the viewer immediately recognizes Rockwell’s intended message, just one of the many reasons why the artist became the most successful artist associated with The Post over the course of its long and storied history. Exhibited Tokyo, Japan, Isetan Museum of Art; Osaka, Japan, Daimaru Museum; Nagoya, Japan, Matsuzakaya Art Museum, Norman Rockwell, February-August 1992, no. 27, p. 128, illustrated p. 62 Naples, Florida, Naples Museum of Art; Newport, Rhode Island, National Museum of American Illustration; Roslyn Harbor, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art; Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Paine Art Center and Gardens, Norman Rockwell: American Imagist, January 2009-September 2010 Newport, Rhode Island, National Museum of American Illustration, Norman Rockwell and His Mentor J.C. Leyendecker, July 2010-April 2011 London, England, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Norman Rockwell's America... In England, December 2010-March 2011, pp. 170-71, illustrated Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham Museum of Art, Norman Rockwell's America, September 2012-January 2013, pp. 82-83, illustrated Newport, Rhode Island, National Museum of American Illustration, Norman Rockwell and His Contemporaries, May 2014-September 2015, p. 131, illustrated

Creator:
Norman Rockwell (1894 - 1978, American)
Creation Year:
1930
Dimensions:
Height: 44.25 in (112.4 cm)Width: 34.25 in (87 cm)
Medium:
Oil,Canvas
Period:
1930-1939
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Fort Washington, PA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU38435820851
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Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell is among the most revered painters of the 20th century. His figurative and portrait paintings reflect an innocent and idyllic America described by the artist as "life as I would like it to be." For nearly 50 years, he illustrated the covers of The Saturday Evening Post in a rich and emotive style that gave distinctive personalities to his imagined characters. In total, Norman Rockwell created more than 4,000 works of art over the course of his life.

Rockwell was born in 1894 in New York City. His artistic aspirations took shape early on, and when he was 14 years old, he took classes at the New York School of the Art, which is now the Parsons School of Design. Later, he attended the Art Students League of New York, where he studied under influential painters Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. While still a teen, Rockwell became art director of the Boy Scouts of America publication Boys' Life.

At 21, Rockwell moved to New Rochelle, New York, and opened a studio with fellow illustrator Victor Clyde Forsythe. He created illustrations for magazines like Literary Digest and Life before his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post was published when he was 22. In 1939, after moving to Arlington, Vermont, Rockwell pivoted to making the nostalgic paintings of small-town and iconic America for which he is best known — scenes of Christmas dinner, children playing in the street and national treasures like Ruby Bridges and Rosie the Riveter.

In 1943, a speech previously given by President Franklin Roosevelt inspired Rockwell to create his most famous series, “The Four Freedoms,” which was exhibited all over the United States. The series included four pieces entitled Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.

Rockwell moved with his family to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1953, where he spent the rest of his life. My Adventures as an Illustrator — the autobiography Rockwell wrote with the help of his son, Thomas — was published in 1960. In 1963, Rockwell ceased working with The Saturday Evening Post and started drawing illustrations for Look magazine.

The world’s largest collection of original Rockwell art can be found at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. The artist was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and he passed away peacefully in his home the following year.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of original Norman Rockwell paintings, prints, drawings and other works.