Artist: Norman Rockwell
Title: Baseball (from the School Days suite)
Year created: 1972
Medium: Lithograph in Color, Hand-Signed in Ink by Norman Rockwell, on Handmade Velin d'Arches Paper
Signed by the artist
Edition: AP (Artist's Proof), of 50 Artist Proofs reserved for the Publisher, of which 29 were signed in ink
Height (inches): 26
Width (inches): 20
This piece is unframed.
Includes a certificate of authenticity.
Description of piece:
Norman Rockwell's Baseball, a limited edition original lithograph in color, is one of only four artworks which comprise Rockwell's School Days suite. The artwork is in pristine condition, and has never been framed.
An iconic Rockwell artwork, the lithograph measures 26" in height x 20" width. The emotional expressiveness which Norman Rockwell has imbued in the work demonstrates the artistic mastery which Rockwell brought to his art.
Created in 1972 on handmade Velin d'Arches paper, the artwork has been hand-signed by Norman Rockwell, in ink. The work also bears the designation AP (Artist Proof), hand-written in pencil. Of the 50 Artists Proofs reserved for the Publisher, of which this is one, only 29 were signed in ink. The suite itself was limited to only 200 sets, of which only 20 contained ink-signed lithographs. The lithographs were created at Atelier Mourlot Casse, Paris, France.
Artist bio:
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) artwork captured scenes from American life and culture, skillfully executed with such minute attention to detail and so realistic that they often resembled photographs rather than paintings. During Rockwell's prodigious career he painted over 300 cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades. He also is noted for his 64-year relationship with the Boy Scouts of America, during which he produced covers for their publication Boys' Life (with which he began his career at age 18), annual calendars, and other illustrations.
Norman Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing more than four thousand original works in his lifetime. Most of his works are either in public collections, or have been destroyed in fire or other misfortunes. Rockwell also was commissioned to illustrate more than forty books, including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His annual contributions for the Boy Scouts calendars between 1925 and 1976 (Rockwell was a 1939 recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America), were only slightly overshadowed by his most popular of calendar works: the "Four Seasons" illustrations for Brown & Bigelow that were published for seventeen years beginning in 1947 and reproduced in various styles and sizes since 1964. He painted six images for Coca-Cola advertising. Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (including "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "God Bless the Hills", which was completed in 1936 for the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's œuvre as an illustrator. In 1969, as a tribute to Rockwell's seventy-fifth anniversary of his birth, officials of Brown & Bigelow and the Boy Scouts of America asked Rockwell to pose in Beyond the Easel, the calendar illustration that year.
Rockwell's work was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2001. Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties sold for $15.4 million at a 2006 Sotheby's auction. A twelve-city U.S. tour of Rockwell's works took place in 2008. In 2008, Rockwell was named the official state artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The 2013 sale of Saying Grace for $46 million established a new record price for Rockwell art. Rockwell's work was exhibited at the Reading Public Museum and the Church History Museum in 2013–2014.
Notice of Updated Buyer Terms of Use
We have recently updated our Buyer Terms of Use. We encourage you to review the revised terms to ensure continued understanding and compliance. By continuing to use our platform, you acknowledge and agree to the updated terms. View the updated Terms of Use