A Rockwell Thanksgiving
o other artist in American history is more associated with Thanksgiving than Norman Rockwell. Throughout his brilliant career, Rockwell illustrated during a nearly fivedecade relationship with the magazine. With its traditional Thanksgiving setting, “Freedom from Want” (below) is one of Rockwell's “Four Freedom” illustrations that ran in successive issues of in 1943. Using his own Arlington, Vt., neighbors as subjects, the warm, folksy work is widely heralded as one of Rockwell's most recognizable paintings. Rockwell's “Home for Thanksgiving” (at left) first appeared on the cover of on Nov. 24, 1945. “Rockwell's initial intention for the Thanksgiving cover of 1945 consisted of a large group of prayerful people giving thanks,” according to the Norman Rockwell Museum website. “With the end of war already in sight, art editor Ken Stuart advised Rockwell to work on a picture of a returned soldier. The gist of Rockwell's picture is that the soldier is glad to do at home what he hated doing in the Army.” The mother and son in the painting were, in fact, mother and son: Sarah Hagelberg and her boy, Richard, owner of a dairy farm in Arlington. Not only was Richard a WWII veteran, but he also served as Rockwell's milkman. The original illustration sold for $4.3 million at Heritage Auctions.
