175

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Courting Couple at Midnight, 1919
Dimensions: 24 x 19
Framed/base Dimensions: 33 1/2 x 27 3/4 x 3 1/4
Signature: signed lower right: Norman Rockwell

oil on canvas laid on board
24 x 19 in.

  • Provenance: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, by 1972
    Private collection, Hawaii
    Sotheby's New York, March 1999, Lot 154 (label verso)
    From a Private Collection
  • Exhibited: The Fort Lauderdale Museum of the Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
    Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
    The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
    McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas
    M.H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California
    Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
    Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
    Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
    Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, February 1972-April 1973
    Hankyu Department Store, Osaka, Japan, April 4-9, 1975 (label verso)
  • Literature: The Saturday Evening Post, March 22, 1919, cover illustration (©SEPS licensed by Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN. All rights reserved)
    Thomas Buechner, Norman Rockwell: Artist & Illustrator, New York, 1970, illus. p. 68, fig. 113
    Christopher Finch, Norman Rockwell's America, New York, 1975, p. 83, illus. pp. 84, 271
    Dr. Donald Stoltz and Marshall L. Stoltz, Norman Rockwell and ‘The Saturday Evening Post:’ May 1916-July 1928, vol. I, New York, 1976, p. 35, illus. p. 36
    Mary Moline, Norman Rockwell Encyclopedia: A Chronological Catalogue of the Artist's Work 1910-1978, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1979, illus. p. 37, fig. I-26 (as Courting Under the Clock at Midnight)
    Laurie Norton Moffatt, Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, vol. I, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, no. C206, p. 79, illus. p. 78
    Jan Cohn, Covers of “The Saturday Evening Post:" Seventy Years of Outstanding Illustration from America’s Favorite Magazine, New York, 1995, illus. p. 83
  • Notes:

    Painted in 1919, Courting Couple at Midnight was the featured cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post on March 22nd, 1919.

    Art historian Christopher Finch observed that “Rockwell’s young lovers are generally fairly attractive but seldom glamorous. He constantly affirms the fact that everybody has the right to fall in love. He does not give us fashion-plate couples. In his treatment of young love...he is devoted to the notion that ordinary folks are capable of a poetry of behavior which is as deserving of our attention as any other kind of poetry.”

    Here is a young couple in the throes of courtship, seated together as the clock strikes midnight. Bathed in the warm glow of domestic intimacy, the young woman leans affectionately into her date’s embrace while the young man, caught between romance and responsibility, gazes anxiously at a cuckoo clock—a detail laden with narrative consequence—aware that their curfew has arrived. He wishes he could turn back time and prolong the fleeting moment.

    Rockwell’s characteristic humor and attention to detail are evident: the young man’s yellow carnation and untamable cowlick, the young woman's adoring gaze, the urgency of the elaborately carved cuckoo clock. The floral wallpaper and patchwork pillow place the scene in a comfortable middle-class American home. The sartorial details—the young man’s watch chain, cufflink, handkerchief; the young woman’s ruffled blouse and sheer sleeves—underscore the ritual and formality of courting in the early twentieth century.

    Though anchored in time and place, this simple moment—two young people lingering past curfew—is transformed into a universal story of youthful romance and the bittersweet passage of time. The painting remains a beloved example of Rockwell’s ability to find beauty and meaning in the everyday.

  • Condition: The painting appears to be in very good condition. The painting was viewed under blacklight and shows a 1 1/2 inch line of inpainting at the upper left corner extending from the frame edge and a small dot of inpainting at the young man's elbow. The frame appears to be in good condition with minor chip losses.

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