Posted on 12/05/2013 5:34:42 AM PST by Utah Binger
Norman Rockwell's "Saying Grace" sold on Wednesday for more than $46 million, double its high pre-sale estimate, setting a new auction record for an American painting, Sotheby's said.
"Saying Grace," which shows a Mennonite family praying at a restaurant, was voted the favorite cover by readers of the American magazine The Saturday Evening Post when it was published in 1951.
The previous auction record for an American painting was for "Polo Crowd" by George Bellows, which sold for $27.7 million in 1999.
"This is just a wonderful result for American art and for Rockwell," Elizabeth Goldberg, the head of Sotheby's American Art department, said in an interview.
"It is largely considered one of his great masterpieces," she added.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Nice, but if it weren’t for tax avoidance it would be going for $410.50.
Rockwell was a real artist who was equally at home drawing and painting from life as he was using photographs. Good illustrators use photographs as just another tool of the trade. The key to Rockwell's greatness (and to any artist) was his ability to design the painting. Arranging values, shapes and colors within the space to produce a great painting is only achieved from talent and years of experience.
Using photos and tracing will never turn a bad artist into a good artist. The same principles hold true for good photographers vs bad photographers.
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