Because of his legendary perfectionist tendencies, Norman Rockwell made preparatory studies a fundamental component of his complex creative process. These works, often smaller in scale and characterized by a freer manner of expression than his finished paintings, allowed the artist to plan and refine every aspect of his composition. Rockwell created the present work as a study for Saying Grace, which appeared on the November 25, 1952 cover of The Saturday Evening Post. The image quickly became the most popular among the artist’s vast audience, and today remains the most iconic image in his oeuvre.
The creation of Saying Grace began almost exactly a year before its publication date when the artist received a letter from a Post reader. Mrs. Edward V. Earl of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania wrote to Rockwell on November 27, 1950 about the experience of witnessing a Mennonite family praying in a Horn & Hardart automat. “[Mrs. Earl] had 'observed a plain young woman,’ explains the Norman Rockwell Museum, ‘evidently Polish,’ she said, with a little boy of about five. They walked by her with food-laden trays, laughing and happy to be in the restaurant. They took off their coats, hung them up and returned to their table at which two men were already seated, ‘shoving in their lunch.’ The young woman and boy folded their hands, bowed their heads and, for two minutes, said Grace” (Norman Rockwell Museum Archives, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. ProjectNORMAN, www.nrm.org).
Rockwell publicly declared that while he frequently received suggestions from readers, only four ultimately found their way onto his canvases. Rockwell liked Mrs. Earl’s idea so much, however, that he decided to incorporate it as the basis for his annual Thanksgiving cover of The Post. In his response to Mrs. Earl’s letter, Rockwell thanked her profusely for her suggestion but also warned that any image he created on this theme would likely diverge from her memory of it. Indeed, Rockwell initially planned for Saying Grace to take place in a restaurant in Manhattan’s Times Square. Left unsatisfied with the preparatory photographs captured on-site, he decided to transition the setting to a less site-specific environment. He envisioned the background first as a flower garden and then as a crowd of people hurrying by before finally settling on a rail yard. Changes like these can be observed through the four preparatory works, two in charcoal and two in oil, Rockwell ultimately executed in advance of the final painting.
