Back to photostream

1920, 06/12 • Norman ROCKWELL “What a Difference Light Makes!” or “Young Couple Surprised by Young Brother”

Norman ROCKWELL • American

* 3 February 1894 in New York City, NY.

✝︎ 8 November 1978 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

 

“What a Difference Light Makes!” or “Young Couple Surprised by Young Brother”

Oil on canvas

40 by 28 inches (101.6 by 71.1 cm)

Signed Norman/Rockwell (lower right)

📍Private collection

Photo credit: Sotheby’s ⓒ

 

Literature ↓

The Saturday Evening Post, June 12, 1920, illustrated p. 61

Mary Moline, Norman Rockwell Encyclopedia: A Chronological Catalogue of the Artist’s Work, 1910-1978, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1979, p. 168.

Laurie Norton Moffatt, Norman Rockwell: Catalogue Raisonné, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, vol. I, no. A253, p. 367, illustrated p. 366.

 

Catalogue Note Sotheby’s ↓

Norman Rockwell painted What a Difference Light Makes! (Young Couple Surprised by Young Brother) in 1920 as an advertisement for Edison Mazda Lampworks. (See my next photo…)

 

Over a period of seven years he created at least twenty full-color oils for this advertising campaign, which was one of his earliest and most successful. These ads were designed to emphasize the comfort of living that could be attained through electric lighting and reproduced predominantly in Ladies' Homer Journal and The Saturday Evening Post.

959 views
4 faves
1 comment
Uploaded on June 12, 2025