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HOMECOMING MARINE

measurements
46 by 42 in.

alternate measurements
(116.8 by 106.7 cm)

signed Norman/Rockwell, l.r.

oil on canvas

Painted in 1945.

PROVENANCE

Gene Davis (gift from the artist)
Roger Wohl, Chicago, Illinois, 1970 (acquired from the above; sold: Philips, New York, April 2, 1981, lot 185, illustrated in color)
Collection of Judy and Alan Goffman Fine Art, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1985

LITERATURE

Saturday Evening Post, October 13, 1945, illustrated on cover
Arthur L. Guptill, Norman Rockwell, Illustrator, New York, 1946, p. 192
Thomas S. Buechner, Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator, New York, 1970, no. 419, illustrated
Thomas S. Buechner, Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective, New York, 1972, p. 91
Christopher Finch, Norman Rockwell's America, New York, 1975, no. 246, pp. 196, 199, illustrated
Mary Moline, Norman Rockwell Encyclopedia, A Chronological Catalog of the Artist's Work 1910-1978, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1979, no. 1-341, p. 71
Susan E. Meyer, Norman Rockwell's People, New York, 1981, pp. 168-69, illustrated in color
Laurie Norton Moffat, Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, vol. I, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, no. C421, p. 163, color pl. 18
Norman Rockwell, My Adventures as an Illustrator, New York, 1988, p. 334, illustrated in color

NOTE

Norman Rockwell painted Homecoming Marine in 1945 for the October 13^th cover of The Saturday Evening Post. It is a poignant tableau of a young soldier's return from overseas at the end of World War II. Rockwell recalled, "Most of the pictures I did during the war took their subjects from the civilian wartime scene--the armchair general, woman war workers, the ration boards. That was what I knew about and what I painted best. During the First World War I had done pictures of the doughboys in France, but it had all been fakery...I had been young then and unsophisticated, just trying to get ahead, establish myself as an illustrator. But in the intervening years I had developed a style and a way of working. Now my pictures grew out of the world around me, the everyday life of my neighbors. ...I painted scenes and people I knew something about" (My Adventures as an Illustrator, New York 1988, p. 328). Rockwell's magazine covers from the post-war era are among his best-known and critically appreciated works. Christopher Finch writes, "the period from the mid-forties until the late fifties was perhaps Rockwell's time of greatest achievement" (Norman Rockwell's America, New York, 1975, p. 31).

By 1939, Rockwell had become restless in New Rochelle and despite a brief trip to London, he was anxious for new surroundings and new inspiration for his work. That year, he, his wife Mary, and their three sons, Jarvis, Thomas and Peter moved to Arlington, Vermont. Arlington proved to be the ideal environment for the next phase of Rockwell's career and became the setting for Homecoming Marine. Rockwell wrote, "The people we met were rugged and self-contained...not hostile but reserved with a dignity and personal integrity which are rare in suburbia...In Vermont, you earn the right to be called by your first name." He continued, "moving to Arlington had given my work a terrific boost," and the ensuing years were a wellspring of creativity for the artist. The Rockwells lived in Vermont for fourteen years, and the sleepy farming community, where "almost everyone had lived...all his life and had known one another since childhood," became the backdrop for some of his most popular and powerful work, including The Four Freedoms (1943, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts) (My Adventures as an Illustrator, New York 1988, pp. 299, 302-303). Despite the didactic and heroic quality of The Four Freedoms, Finch points out that Rockwell's "more characteristic response to the war was his involvement with the plight of the little guy--the clerk or garage mechanic--caught up in the turmoil of the times" (Norman Rockwell's America, p. 30). This "turmoil," the growing pains of a society in the wake of World War II, is affectingly captured in Homecoming Marine, which depicts a moment when the war was actually "brought home," not by newspapers and newsreels, but by the soldiers who had fought in it. As the war drew to a close, this scene was being acted out in thousands of homes and communities across America.

Here a young marine has returned to his old workplace and is greeted by friends and locals anxious to hear his stories. Rockwell's main character is a serious and rugged young man, no longer the inexperienced youth portrayed in the drawing on the wall. He holds a Japanese flag from the notoriously grim Battle of Iwo Jima, in which more marines earned the Medal of Honor than any other battle in United States history. A newspaper clipping reporting his heroism is proudly pinned to the overcrowded garage wall. All the listeners focus intently on the marine, leaning forward, transfixed, the gravity of the moment, palpable. The solemn show of respect for the young man duly expresses the patriotism, solidarity and American ideal of democracy that Rockwell promoted throughout his career.

Rockwell chose Arlington's Benedict's Garage as the setting for Homecoming Marine and the owner, Bob Benedict, Jr., is pictured with his hand on his hip and a pipe hanging from his mouth. Benedict's brother, John Benedict, built cabinets and stairs for Rockwell, and is seated on the table. Nip Noyes is the postman and Herb Squires sits with his back to the viewer. Rockwell discovered his model storyteller, former Marine Duane Peters, at a Grange Hall square dance. Rockwell drew his characters from his friends and family, and was proud of the "authenticity" of the painting. The artist's sons posed as the two young boys; Jarvis in the red university sweater, and Peter in the white striped T-shirt. Rockwell once told a dealer that, for this reason, it was one of his favorite paintings.

Finch writes: "World War II played a very strange role in Rockwell's career. Rockwell is far from being a warlike person; he is, on the contrary, a gentleman in the literal sense of the word. Yet the war brought out the best in him and turned him toward the naturalistic portrait of home-town America which he put to good use in the decades that followed. His immediate contribution to the war effort on the home front was quite considerable. What is most important about this period, in relation to his career as an illustrator, is the fact that he was given an opportunity to prove to himself and to others that he was capable of dealing with serious subjects without abandoning the human touch which had always been his trademark (Norman Rockwell's America, p. 200).