Norman Rockwell oil painting

Probably the most beloved painter in US history.

Note: The below information is courtesy of WIKIPEDIA. You may read more about Norman Rockwell by clicking here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Rockwell

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY:

Norman Percevel Rockwell

(February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was a 20th century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are Rosie the Riveter (although his Rosie was reproduced less than others of the day), Saying Grace (1951), and the Four Freedoms series.

As a student, Rockwell was given smaller, less important jobs. His first major breakthrough came in 1912 at age 18 with his first book illustration for Carl H. Claudy's Tell Me Why: Stories about Mother Nature.

Also, at age 19, in 1913, he became the art editor for Boys' Life, a post he held for several years. As part of fulfilling that position, he painted several covers between 1913 and 1915. His first published magazine cover, Scout at Ship's Wheel, appeared on Boys' Life September 1913 edition.

Norman Rockwell was very prolific, and produced over 4000 original works, most of which have been either destroyed by fire or are in permanent collections. Rockwell was also commissioned to illustrate over 40 books including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His annual contributions for the Boy Scouts' calendars between 1925 and 1976 (Rockwell was a 1939 recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America^[2]), were only slightly overshadowed by his most popular of calendar works: the "Four Seasons" illustrations for Brown & Bigelow that were published for 17 years beginning in 1947 and reproduced in various styles and sizes since 1964. Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (including "Yankee Doodle Dandy", which was completed in 1936 for the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's śuvre as an illustrator.

Many of his works appear overly sweet in modern critics' eyes, especially the Saturday Evening Post covers, which tend toward idealistic or sentimentalized portrayals of American life—this has led to the often-deprecatory adjective Rockwellesque. Consequently, Rockwell is not considered a "serious painter" by some contemporary artists, who often regard his work as bourgeois and kitsch. Writer Vladimir Nabokov scorned brilliant technique put to "banal" use, and wrote in his book Pnin: "That Dalí is really Norman Rockwell's twin brother kidnapped by Gypsies in babyhood". He is called an "illustrator" instead of an artist by some critics, a designation he did not mind, as it was what he called himself.

However, in his later years, Rockwell began receiving more attention as a painter when he chose more serious subjects such as the series on racism for Look. One example of this more serious work is The Problem We All Live With, which dealt with the issue of school integration. The painting depicts a young African American girl, Ruby Bridges, flanked by white federal marshals, walking to school past a wall defaced by racist graffiti.

Rockwell's work received its most prominent official acknowledgment with an exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum .

First, there is no provenance for this painting, that is downside. It does look authentic, and I have taken many photographs of this front, angles and back of the painting. We make no claim that this is an authentic Norman Rockwell oil painting, we are presenting this oil painting as a possible Norman Rockwell painting. So, please take a close look, and decide before you bid on this. This is our disclaimer on this work. We think it is authentic, but we also welcome any enlightenment on this interesting painting. No date is noted.

Oil  on canvas (linen?) of a steel worker. It looks like a study of some sort, either for a larger painting or for a magazine illustration. The frame looks like an old original frame and the canvas is old and has two strips of whitish repair cloth on the verso (see the photos, please). The front of the painting looks fairly smooth where these back strips are, but I have taken an angle shot showing reflected light on these areas, please see the photograph.

The size of the canvas measures: 24" x 12"

The overall frame size is: 18-1/8" x 30"

FRONT:

CLOSE-UP of WORKER:

CLOSE-UP of  WORKERS IN THE BACKGROUND, LOWER RIGHT, ALSO SHOWING SIGNATURE:

CLOSE-UP of  SIGNATURE:

CLOSE-UP of FRONT WITHOUT THE FRAME:

AN ANGLE SHOT TAKEN IN BRIGHT SUNLIGHT SHOWING THE OVER-ALL SMOOTHNESS OF THE FRONT. THE TWO STRIPS ON THE BACK SHOW AS A BIT RAISED. ON THE NORMAL VIEWING OF THE PAINTING, NONE OF THIS APPEARS. THIS IS AN EXAGGERATED PHOTOGRAPH.

CLOSE-UP of WORKER AT AN ANGLE IN BRIGHT SUNLIGHT TO SHOW YOU TEXTURE, ETC. AGAIN THIS IS EXAGGERATED. :

CLOSE-UP of WORKERS. VERY INTERESTING. :

CLOSE-UP of UPPER RIGHT CORNER AREA, TAKEN IN BRIGHT LIGHT TO SHOW YOU THE TEXTURE OF THE PAINT AND CANVAS. AGAIN THIS IS NOT REALLY

THE WAY THE PAINTING SHOWS IN NORMAL LIGHTING :

CLOSE-UP of ABOVE AREA, SHOWING THE WHITE. IT IS WHITE PAINT, PAINTED OVER THE GREEN OIL PAINT. :

CLOSE-UP of WORKERS:

CLOSE-UP of WORKER'S HEAD AREA, SHOWING PAINT AND STROKES AND LAYERS OF PAINT.  THIS IS MUCH ENLARGED, BY THE WAY. :

CLOSE-UP of WORKER WITH A HAMMER THAT IS IN THE LOWER LEFT AREA OF THE PAINTING. :

CLOSE-UP of WORKERS, AGAIN, IN THE LOWER RIGHT AREA OF PAINTING. GREATLY ENLARGED. :

CLOSE-UP of WORKER AND EDGE OF PAINTING TAKEN IN BRIGHT OUTDOOR SUNLIGHT. :

CLOSE-UP of WORKERS AT ANOTHER ANGLE, ALSO SHOWING DOOR ENTRANCE WAY. :

CLOSE-UPS of THE BACK OF THE PAINTING. :