"MARRIAGE CONTRACT"

Up for sale is this Limited Edition Facsimile Signed Lithograph entitled "MARRIAGE CONTRACT"  BY NORMAN ROCKWELL.  This piece has never been framed, is in mint condition and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.   The Facsimile signature and number is on the border of the artwork below the image.  Please note:  the second picture above is a picture of a Saturday Evening Post magazine cover included for reference purposes only!

Size: 30" x 26"

Edition Size: 2500

Retail Price: $750

Background:

Based on the original oil, set in the town clerk's office just footsteps away from Rockwell's first Stockbridge studio on Main Street, "Marriage Contract" captures Rockwell's fascination with the somber wood-paneled interiors of his favorite seventeenth-century Dutch painters. His model for the town clerk had recently lost his wife, and the authenticity of his feelings adds power to the poignancy in this study of youth and old age.  The couple in the picture were actually getting married and Rockwell asked them if they would pose for the piece.   In keeping with the older style, Rockwell replaced an existing metal file cabinet in the left foreground with an old railroad station stove as pictured on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post dated June 11, 1955 (see above).  For his covers, Rockwell would make a small sketch of his scene, then make individual drawings of each element that was to make up the painting. Next he would make a full-size charcoal drawing of the entire scene, and finally, before actually starting the painting, color sketches. In later life he also worked from photographs, sometimes projecting them onto the canvas and sketching in the outlines in charcoal.

The Saturday Evening Post was the most cherished and sought after magazine in American publishing, and a reflection of America itself. From 1900 to 1969, the art and imagination of the greatest illustrators the world has ever known, found its way to the magazine’s covers as well as their illustrations complementing fiction and articles by renowned authors of the time in every issue.  Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades.