Travelogue

After leaving Mt. Brodie, we headed south on Route 7 through Pittsfield and eventually on to the lovely town of Stockbridge. We stopped at the Red Lion Inn, where we had such wonderful memories of sitting in the rocking chairs on the porch sipping wine during our summer trips to Tanglewood—in our previous life before kids. Now, however, the rocking chairs were put away for the winter and we had two little people by our side waiting to be entertained.

So, we skipped the sipping wine part and headed to the Norman Rockwell Museum, a short distance away. Something about Rockwell’s paintings of American life always make me feel good. They seem so optimistic and full of hope, appreciative of the little things that make life so wonderful. The museum has the largest collection of his art.

We spent most of our time in a room whose walls were lined with over 300 Saturday Evening Post covers that Rockwell illustrated, from his first in 1916 when he was just 22 years old until his last in 1963. They provided a beautiful summary of life in 20th century America.

When I think of Norman Rockwell, I think of these magazine covers, but he was also a prolific painter. The museum had on exhibit over 70 of his paintings. They were absolutely delightful—funny, touching, and always full of hope. The more you looked at them, the more painstaking detail you discovered.

We left the museum smiling. If only life could be as simple and wholesome as Rockwell’s images.

Description

Located in lovely Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the Norman Rockwell Museum is home to the world’s larges collection of original Rockwell art. The collection includes selections from his Saturday Evening Post covers, portraits and advertising works, and the famous Four Freedoms and Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas. The museum also houses the Norman Rockwell Archives; a collection of over 100,000 various items related to his life.