Lot 82
Hasten the Homecoming. 1945.
Passed
Est.
$1,200
- $1,500
Live Auction
PAI-LXXXIX: Rare Posters
Live Bidding began Mar 26, 2023 at 11:00 AM EDT
ARTIST
NORMAN ROCKWELL (1849-1978)
Category
Description
Artist: NORMAN ROCKWELL (1849-1978)
Size: 20 x 28 7/8 in./50.8 x 73.3 cm
Condition: A.
Reference: (all var but PAI): Manifesti/WWII, p. 71; Rockwell Illustrator, p. 189; Rockwell’s America, Poster Covers checklist; PAI-LXVII, 492
Key Words: War & Propaganda; American
Hasten the Homecoming. 1945.
“For the Post cover of May 26, 1945, Rockwell painted a homecoming GI... This is hardly the adman’s image of the American Dream, but the welcome being accorded the returning soldier is no less exuberant for that... The GI himself hardly looks like a hardened veteran, but the enthusiasm of his reception tends to suggest that he has indeed returned from the front line. He seems a trifle stunned to find himself home. This is not exactly a heroic picture. The redheaded GI is not the representative of some abstract ideal. He may have been fighting for home and country, but we might suppose that his image of ‘country’ is virtually coexistent with his image of ‘home.’ It would seem, in fact, that for the most part Rockwell saw war as an interruption of home life—an unwanted, if necessary, disturbance of the status quo. Very few of his wartime paintings glorify the military life... [He] shows us how war affects the man in the street—the man who must contribute to the solutions without having contributed to the causes” (Rockwell’s America, p. 195-196). Originally produced as a painting, this image was also used as a Saturday Evening Post cover as well as a poster; here we see it once again, without the magazine’s logo.
Size: 20 x 28 7/8 in./50.8 x 73.3 cm
Condition: A.
Reference: (all var but PAI): Manifesti/WWII, p. 71; Rockwell Illustrator, p. 189; Rockwell’s America, Poster Covers checklist; PAI-LXVII, 492
Key Words: War & Propaganda; American
Hasten the Homecoming. 1945.
“For the Post cover of May 26, 1945, Rockwell painted a homecoming GI... This is hardly the adman’s image of the American Dream, but the welcome being accorded the returning soldier is no less exuberant for that... The GI himself hardly looks like a hardened veteran, but the enthusiasm of his reception tends to suggest that he has indeed returned from the front line. He seems a trifle stunned to find himself home. This is not exactly a heroic picture. The redheaded GI is not the representative of some abstract ideal. He may have been fighting for home and country, but we might suppose that his image of ‘country’ is virtually coexistent with his image of ‘home.’ It would seem, in fact, that for the most part Rockwell saw war as an interruption of home life—an unwanted, if necessary, disturbance of the status quo. Very few of his wartime paintings glorify the military life... [He] shows us how war affects the man in the street—the man who must contribute to the solutions without having contributed to the causes” (Rockwell’s America, p. 195-196). Originally produced as a painting, this image was also used as a Saturday Evening Post cover as well as a poster; here we see it once again, without the magazine’s logo.