Icons of Illustration

The Polk Museum showcases the original paintings that formed the basis for the commercial works of American greats Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth

Through May 26, 2024
Polk Museum of Art
800 E. Palmetto Street
Lakeland, FL 33801
t: (863) 688-7743
www.polkmuseumofart.org

Although they each had their own distinctive style and rose to prominence in different eras, N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) and Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), captured the imaginations of Americans throughout the 20th century and remain beloved for the nostalgic sentiments they evoke today.

In celebration of these two pillars of American art history, the Polk Museum of Art presents Rockwell/Wyeth: Icons of Americana, on view at the Florida institution through May 26. The exhibition features 40 paintings by Rockwell and Wyeth, along with the complete set of Rockwell’s 321 covers for The Saturday Evening Post.

Developed in partnership with the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island, this exclusive exhibition provides a rare opportunity to examine Rockwell and Wyeth side-by-side within a scholarly context.

Polk Museum of Art executive director and chief curator H. Alexander Rich elaborates. “Norman Rockwell is undoubtedly one of the most familiar names in the history of American art, let alone, for broad audiences, in the history of art, and the opportunity to present his work in tandem with that of N.C. Wyeth, also once a huge name in American art, was an opportunity we were not willing to pass up. We could theoretically have paired any number of American illustrators for an exhibition like this, but I really wanted to seize this chance to examine on an accessible and scholarly level the work of two of America’s most beloved artists.

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Norman Rockwell Visits a Country School, 1946. Oil paint on two pieces of photographic paper joined together. © 2023 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI, and the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY.

“They were both household names, whose illustrations began as spectacular full-scale paintings before being scaled as reproductions in print,” Rich continues. “I was fascinated personally by how artists whose names are known by and hold the widest esteem with the public…could also have been deprecated as not being ‘fine artists’ by the art elite. Illustration was long seen as a lesser art form because it was commercial; I wanted to build an exhibition for our museum and for our audiences that proved that illustrators like Rockwell and Wyeth were absolutely fine artists in addition to their being popular.”

N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), Frontier Trapper, 1920. Oil on canvas. © 2023 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI, and the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY.The exhibit achieves this through the original paintings by the artists, juxtaposed with reproductions of their work in print. Rich adds, “Our visitors will see what most viewers of Rockwell and Wyeth’s illustrations in books, magazines, and advertisements never realized—that every illustration began as an oil painting by a finely trained artist and that what they saw and experienced in print was a photographic reproduction of a beautiful, tactile work of art.”

Featuring a mix of well-known works and rarer pieces that many will not be familiar with, among the highlights of the exhibit are Rockwell’s Four Freedoms a series of four oil paintings made in 1943 that reference President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address during which he identified essential human rights that must be protected. Also expected to be a favorite among visitors are Wyeth’s book illustrations such as The Doryman, painted in 1933 as an illustration for Trending Into Maine; and Snowbound, 1928, painted for a proposed Coca-Cola American poetry series. The piece, depicting a young boy and older man shoveling in a winter wonderland landscape, could easily stand on its own, removed from its commercial context. The original paintings for some of Rockwell’s most popular Saturday Evening Covers—including The Doughboy and His Admirers and Threading the Needle will also be shown alongside their print reproductions.

“I expect that every visitor will find a work that becomes a personal favorite, but I suspect that the original paintings by the artists, especially those that most surprise our audiences’ expectations of the two artists, will also be those most loved by visitors,” notes Rich. “We want our visitors to come away with new insight into the world of American illustration and the processes underlying it, just as much as we want them to learn all about these American masters. There is so much to take in in Rockwell/Wyeth, and we hope visitors will leave with a new appreciation for how these nostalgic renditions of an idealized past inform our how we consider our still-less-than-ideal present. After all, we are an unapologetically academic museum: we want to expand minds and hearts as much as we want to make art—and a visit to the local museum—fun.”