Boy Looking Through Telescope by Norman Rockwell

August 19, 1922 Issue of The Saturday Evening Post

Boy Looking Through Telescope, this Norman Rockwell painting, appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post published August 19, 1922.

An alternate title for this painting is Ship Ahoy.

This painting was Rockwell's fiftieth 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.

It was also the seventh Rockwell cover in 1922. The Post featured a Rockwell illustration on its cover ten times in 1922.

The location of the original painting is not known.

This illustration has been reproduced in three Rockwell commentary books, as illustration 163 of Norman Rockwell's America by Christopher Finch, as illustration 151 of Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator by Thomas Buechner and on page 90 of Norman Rockwell, A Definitive Catalogue by Laurie Norton Moffatt.

Like all of the early Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations, this one is also hard to find in excellent or better condition. Higher grades are almost impossible to find.

Boy Looking Through Telescope

This Norman Rockwell painting explores the fascination that young boys feel for the sea.

Here we see an old salt sitting on the dock.

Rockwell portrays him as a seaman who has certainly experienced much in his life. Notice the sailor's peg leg.

His clothing also expresses his seamanship. He has an anchor on his sweater. his hat is a sailor's hat. His work trousers have been patched in the knee, but they are not in disrepair.

Contrast the sailor with the boy. The boy's sailor outfit is all white, brand new and perfectly clean.

The boy was playing with his toy sailboat until he spied the sailor sitting with his parrot.

No doubt, the boy imagined that any sailor with a peg leg, telescope and parrot had a bit of pirate in him.

The sailor enjoys the attention of the boy. He offers the boy a look through his telescope.

Of course the boy's arms are not long enough to hold the telescope fully extended. So the sailor helps the boy to enjoy the full benefits of the extended telescope.

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