Norman Rockwell 1894-1978

Private New England collection, 1920 (acquired directly from the artist)
Sale: Skinner, New York, May 14, 1999, lot 262
Private Collection

Country Gentleman, July 31, 1920, illustrated in color on the cover
Mary Moline, Norman Rockwell Encyclopedia: A Chronological Catalog of the Artist's Work, 1910-1978, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1979, p. 19 (as Monkey Grinder and Kids)
Laurie Norton Moffatt, Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, Vol. I, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, no. C60, pp. 24-25, illustrated

Very good condition, craquelure in white pigments, under UV: some very minor dots and dashes of retouching particularly along top left border and lower center.
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.

By the time twenty-six year old Norman Rockwell painted The Organ Grinder in 1920, he had already garnered widespread fame as one of the country's premiere illustrators. Rockwell had established himself as a master storyteller who could, through a single image, communicate views of daily American life that were to eventually become ingrained in the national consciousness. Rockwell painted The Organ Grinder for the July 31^st cover of Country Gentleman magazine. A widely read agricultural journal, Country Gentleman featured thirty-four Rockwell covers between 1917 and 1922. Like so many of the artist's works, these covers depict scenes full of the innocence and humor of rural life. In particular, Rockwell represented the lives of children; using them on all but four of his Country Gentleman covers. Rockwell passed many of his own early childhood summers in the countryside, and these experiences indelibly shaped the nostalgic images he would later paint. He once recalled: "The summers I spent in the country as a child became part of this idealized view of life. Those summers seemed blissful, sort of a happy dream. But I wasn't a country boy. I didn't really have that kind of life. Except ... later on in my paintings." Rockwell admitted to having "a bad case of the American nostalgia for the clean, simple country life ..." (My Adventures as an Illustrator, 1988, p. 35).

The present painting, Rockwell's twenty-third Country Gentleman cover, depicts an organ grinder playing for three young children, a common sight in America during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Before the invention of the transistor, organ grinders were a popular source of music, especially for the poor in both rural and urban areas. Beloved by some, organ grinders were also objects of derision. An irritated New Yorker once complained in an editorial that due to the organ grinders the "sidewalk and gutter are ... so much blocked up by the children attracted that life and limb are endangered." The writer went on to lament that organ grinders were "the fundamental cause of so many children wanting to be ballet dancers" (Frederick K. Wineburgh, The New York Times, September 16, 1900).

In The Organ Grinder, Rockwell uses a vivid red, which stands out against the neutral brown and gray shades, to draw the viewer's eye to the focal point of the image: the monkey and its interaction with the children. The varied reactions of the children suggest that this may be their first encounter with a monkey. Clad in a bright red suit, the monkey holds on to the grinder's red scarf as it carefully extends the cup to a delighted boy, whose gesture and expression convey a youthful sense of wonderment. Though we cannot see her face, the little girl's apprehension is clearly evident as she cringes away from the animal, as another boy stands in rapt attention, seemingly absorbed in the moment.