Young Couple by Norman Rockwell

November 1918 Issue of American

Young Couple, this Norman Rockwell painting, appeared on the cover of American published November 1918.

This was the first picture by Rockwell to appear on the American Magazine cover. American Magazine only published seven Rockwell illustrated covers, between 1918 and 1923.

The style of illustration appearing on the American cover was markedly different from most other Rockwell magazine covers of the time. Rockwell painted these as portraits instead of situations. Also, full color paintings were published, instead of just red and black like the Post and The Country Gentleman.

Rockwell only submitted to this and other smaller magazines after the publishers of the larger magazines had declined to publish the illustration.

Probably, the smaller magazines desired Rockwell's signature and art on the cover to provide a boost in newstand sales. The artist was already very popular by the time this cover appeared.

Clearly, Rockwell's first choice of publication was The Saturday Evening Post. He believed that the Post cover was America's biggest showcase window for artists. Of course, his career confirmed this.

The location of the original oil painting and even whether it still exists is unknown.

The original cover price of twenty-five cents was fairly reasonable for a monthly published magazine of the era. The weekly publications of the time, such as the Post, Life and the Literary Digest were usually five cents.

Young Couple

Sorry about the remnant of mailing label on this scan. I have two copies , but both had mailing labels in approximately the same spot. I was able to minimize the size of the label with some creative pasting between the pictures. You can probably notice a slight difference in the hue of the girl's hair just to the left of the A in American. Once more, my apologies, and I hope to have a better copy one day.

Here we see a young couple out for a stroll. We can tell they are walking from their posture.

The young lady is no doubt wearing a dress. Yet the sleeves and the lace around the collar are all we can see. She is also wearing a ribbon around her head.

She is looking past us off to our left. She has a distant look in her eyes.

Her husband or boyfriend is walking beside her. He is wearing a necktie, a jacket and a cap.

For reasons unknown, he is glancing down. Is he admiring her dress? Is he admiring her skin? Or something else.

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