Norman Rockwell 1894 - 1978

The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1942 (commissioned from the artist)
Acquired by the present owner, 2003

Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Norman Rockwell Museum, The Picture of Health: Norman Rockwell Paintings, November 2003-May 2004, p. 18, illustrated in color p. 19Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Norman Rockwell Museum, June-September 2006, July-September 2008, July-September 2009, June-September 2011, February-April 2012 (on loan)
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Norman Rockwell Museum; Old Lyme, Connecticut, Florence Griswold Museum; Kalamazoo, Michigan, Kalamazoo Institute of Art; Mobile, Alabama, Mobile Museum of Art; Fredericksburg, Virginia, Gari Melchers Home and Studio; El Paso, Texas, El Paso Museum of Art; Sandwich, Massachusetts, Heritage Museum and Gardens, Picturing Health: Norman Rockwell and the Art of Illustration, January 2007-September 2012

Laurie Norton Moffatt, Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, vol. I, no. A831, p. 570, illustrated

The following condition report has been prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation: This painting is in very presentable condition. There is very little retouching or actual physical damage apparent. There is possibly some strengthening in the creases of the doctor's trousers around his left knee. Given the fact that Rockwell's pictures do appear rather eccentrically under ultraviolet light, there do not appear to be any other retouches except for those in his trousers and some cracking in the lower left in the pillow on the bed. This work is lined with wax, which is easily reversible and should be reversed in order to de-acidify the canvas, but the painting is in very good state.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

For his fourth painting for Upjohn, Rockwell proposed the idea of a doctor visiting with a little girl and her doll. Although he had used this basic format and subject many years before as a Saturday Evening Post cover, Rockwell assured the company that he would modernize the image and imbue it with “1941 character.” Rockwell began Doctor and Doll during a 1942 winter vacation in Alhambra, California. He selected his neighbor Eli Harvey, a renowned animal sculptor, to pose as the doctor. He kept his word to Upjohn by dressing the young girl and her doll in contemporary fashions. Despite these time-specific details, the picture remains evocative of an era that was quickly disappearing by the 1940s. The portrayal of a grandfatherly family doctor, typical of Rockwell’s characterizations of the period, recalls a time when physicians still made house calls, or even took the time to check a doll’s pulse to earn her mother’s trust. Doctor and Doll appeared as a display in pharmacy windows and thousands of doctors’ offices, hospitals and clinics throughout the country.  The doctor/patient relationship, depicted as one of trust and caring, suited the corporate image Upjohn wanted to project, but also conveys the hopefulness and idealism that consistently characterized Rockwell’s view of the American experience.