Girl Reading The Post by Norman Rockwell

March 1, 1941 Issue of The Saturday Evening Post

Girl Reading The Post, a Norman Rockwell painting, appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post published March 1, 1941. This is another favorite of Rockwell collectors, a classic enduring image of the world Rockwell painted.

An alternate title for this painting is Cover Girl.

This painting was Rockwell's 199th overall out of 322 total paintings that were published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell's career with the Post spanned 47 years, from his first cover illustration, Boy With Baby Carriage in 1916 to his last, Portrait of John F. Kennedy, in 1963.

This was also the first cover for The Post in 1941. In 1941, there were six Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers published.

The original oil on canvas painting, 35.25 x 27.25 inches or 89.5 x 69 cm is part of the collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum of Stockbridge MA. It was a gift to the museum from the Walt Disney Family.

The painting was originally given by Rockwell to Walt Disney and resided in the collection of the Walt Disney Archives for many years. The painting bears this inscription: "to Walt Disney, one of the really great artists, from an admirer, NR."

This painting is part of the traveling exhibit, American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell. I had the pleasure of viewing it in Raleigh,NC at the Noroth Carolina Museum of Art.

This painting also appears in six Rockwell commentary books. It appears:

• on pages 286 and 311 of Norman Rockwell 332 Magazine Covers by Christopher Finch
• as illustration 15 of Norman Rockwell's America by Christopher Finch
• on page 29 of Norman Rockwell: America's Most Beloved Painter by Karal Ann Marling
• on page 85 of Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective by Thomas Buechner
• as illustration 366 of Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator by Thomas Buechner and
• on page 146 of Norman Rockwell, A Definitive Catalogue by Laurie Norton Moffatt.

Pristine original copies of this magazine cover routinely sell for big bucks on eBay, when it is offered. And to think it only cost five cents originally! And it was mint condition then, too.

Girl Reading The Post

In this painting, Norman Rockwell uses a familiar device for humorous results.

Rockwell often used objects to suggest a vision different from the reality of the scene.

In this painting, he used the cover of the Saturday Evening Post to give this lady a different face than she would have had just a few minutes before.

Another bit of amusement comes from the fact that this painting of a girl reading The Post appeared on the cover of The Post.

Now, if Rockwell had only been prescient, he might have matched the cover story (printed along the bottom of the cover) on his Post cover with the cover story on the issue that this painting graced.

I don't think even Norman Rockwell was that good!

Norman Rockwell's Girl Reading The Post (1941)
(Image Only) Copyright © 1941 Saturday Evening Post & Curtis Publishing Company