Norman Rockwell’ s Closing Up a Summer Cottage
NORMAN ROCKWELL’ S ONLY CREDITED PHOTOGRAPH, Closing Up a Summer Cottage, is unique in the artist ' s career. In 1957, Eastman Kodak approached Rockwell to design and direct a photograph for the company ' s immense Colorama display in New York ' s Grand Central Terminal. Claimed to be the world ' s largest photograph, Coloramas were 18-by-60-foot rear-lighted color transparencies that occupied Grand Central ' s east balcony from 1950 to 1990. Seen daily by every commuter entering the terminal ' s Grand Concourse, the Colorama was a prominent advertising vehicle for Kodak. Perfectly timed for its subject, Closing up a Summer Cottage was on view for the closing weeks of September 1957. The first credited to an artist, the Colorama was signed by Rockwell during a visit to Kodak ' s Information Center in Grand Central.
Presented as part of I SPY! Walter Wick’ s Hidden Wonders, on view now through October 26 at the Norman Rockwell Museum, the image invites a fascinating conversation between two architects of visual storytelling. Like Wick— celebrated for his intricate photographic puzzles— Rockwell constructed his world with deliberate detail, staging the scene with models, props, and careful lighting to create a photograph that reads like a painting.
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