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The Ouija Board by Norman RockwellMay 1, 1920 Issue of The Saturday Evening PostThe Ouija Board, this Norman Rockwell painting, appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post published May 1, 1920. This painting was Rockwell's twenty-ninth overall picture out of 322 total featured on the cover of The 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 fourth Rockwell cover in 1920. The Post featured a Rockwell illustration on its cover eleven times in 1920. The original oil on canvas painting, 26 x 22 inches or 66 x 56 cm, is part of a private collection. This painting also appears in three Rockwell commentary books. It appears as illustration 94 of Norman Rockwell's America by Christopher Finch, as illustration 130 of Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator by Thomas Buechner and on page 82 of Norman Rockwell, A Definitive Catalogue by Laurie Norton Moffatt. Pristine examples of this cover regularly sell for more than one hundred dollars. And to think it only cost five cents when brand new.
The Ouija BoardIn this painting, Norman Rockwell gives us a look at both the seriousness and the trivial side of the occult. The Ouija Board was only one of 322 Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers;
Here is the list of Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations.
Here is the complete list of all Norman Rockwell magazine covers. Here we see a couple asking questions of an Ouija board. Ouija boards are also called talking boards and spirit boards. This device is used to ask questions of spirits. The spirits are supposed to guide the participants' hands on the part of the ouija board set that moves, the planchette. This guidance produces the spirits' answers to asked questions. One person can use a talking board, but is supposedly more accurate with two people. This is especially true when the answer concerns the two people asking. We do not know what questions the couple is posing to the spirits. But we can observe that the young man is pushing the planchette towards "YES". He is watching the young woman to make sure she doesn't spy him influencing the spirits' answer. The young woman is not looking at the board or the planchette. She is gazing upwards. She is hoping to get an answer from spirits. The young man wants a specific answer. I wonder what the question is.
Copyright © 1920 Saturday Evening Post & Curtis Publishing Company
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