Lauren's Art Discourse

Home for Christmas, Norman Rockwell, 1967, Oil on Canvas, Source: https://www.biography.com/news/norman-rockwell-art-facts

Home for Christmas by Norman Rockwell is a depiction of the artist’s hometown at Christmastime. The painting is symbolic of Christmas in New England. The time of year is evidenced by the Christmas tree in the second floor of the 3rd building from the left, which is the artist’s original studio, as well as the tree on the roof of the red car in the right side of the painting. Other notable buildings pictured in the painting are the town hall which served as the backdrop for Rockwell’s Marriage License (1955), the Red Lion Inn which is one of the oldest inns in the country, and Rockwell’s South Street home and studio. Despite that the painting is a depiction of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the town which Rockwell called “the best of New England, the best of America”, Rockwell used images over other states and even other countries as references to create the scene. For the sky and snowy mountains in the background, Rockwell referenced photographs of the mountains in Berkshire Hills, Vermont as in Switzerland. As references for the snow-covered streets, he used prints of Siberian winter scenes. To create the warm, glowing interiors of the houses and buildings, he studied magazine images depicting candlelit country homes. For the clothing styles of the figures in the painting, especially the women’s coats, he used illustrations from a Sears & Roebuck catalogue. But, for the buildings in the image, Rockwell used images from Stockbridge. As references, his assistant Louie Lamone photographed each building in the painting from a frontal point of view. Rockwell created this painting for McCall’s Magazine. Of the painting they wrote, “Wherever you happen to hail from — city, suburb, farm or ranch — we hope you will have, for a moment, the feeling of coming home for Christmas.”