Description
Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont explores how America’s beloved illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) crafted an idealized vision of Vermont—nostalgic, resilient, and mythic—during his most prolific years in Arlington (1939–1953).
In these works, Rockwell offered a nation battered by the Great Depression and World War II a reassuring image of American life: orderly, self-reliant, and picturesque. Through paintings and illustrations, Rockwell captured not simply scenes of New England life, but a deeply rooted ethos—one in which democratic community, moral clarity, and quiet individualism flourished.
This book, and the accompanying exhibition, situates Rockwell’s Vermont years within a broader creative milieu, highlighting the Arlington artist circle that included John Atherton (1900–52), Mead Schaeffer (1898-80), Gene Pelham (1909–2004), and others— all informally enticed to Arlington, Vermont. Together, they helped define a cultural moment in which Vermont was mythologized as democracy’s granite-strong refuge. Even Rockwell’s orchestrated friendship with Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses (1860–1961) was part of a wider crafting of New England as both authentic and marketable—where artists and audiences alike found a form of moral anchorage.
Featuring three newly acquired Rockwell paintings to Shelburne Museum celebrating Vermont’s granite industry—long regarded as the state’s “backbone”—Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont examines not only the imagery but the careful mythmaking that made Vermont central to Rockwell’s enduring vision of America. Today, Rockwell’s work is housed in major museums across the country, a testament to his profound influence as an artist.
Accompanies the exhibition Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont, Shelburne Museum, VT, June 20 – October 25, 2026.
Author biographies
Carolyn Bauer is the Marna and Chuck Davis Curator of American Art at Shelburne Museum.
Thomas Denenberg is the John Wilmerding Director & CEO at Shelburne Museum.
Alexander Nemerov is the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford University.
Table of Contents
- Foreword and Acknowledgments by Carolyn Bauer and Thomas Denenberg
- Small Town, Big Picture: Norman Rockwell and the Arlington Artists by Carolyn Bauer
- Looking North: Illustration, Art, and the Places in Between by Thomas Denenberg
- Rock and Stone: The Life-and-Death Art of Norman Rockwell by Alexander Nemerov
- Norman Rockwell’s Arlington Years: 1938–1953
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Author Biographies
- Photo Credits
- Index
