NORMAN ROCKWELL - LITHOGRAPH SET SIGNED - HFSID 283911

NORMAN ROCKWELL
Limited edition set of seven lithographs based on Rockwell paintings used to illustrate Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack. Each 25½x19½ lithograph in the set has been signed in pencil by Rockwell and is numbered.
Lithograph Set signed: "Norman Rockwell" in pencil. Set of seven color lithographs, each 25½x19½. Each one is numbered (111 of 200) and signed by the artist. Loose sheets of handmade Velin d'Arches paper. Pulled at Atelier Mourlot, Paris. The 7 lithographs, based on Rockwell's paintings for the Heritage Press edition of Poor Richard's Almanack (1964) are titled: "Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia", "The Drunkard", "Ben's Belles", "The Village Smithy", "Ye Olde Print Shoppe", "The Golden Age" and "The Royal Crown". The set is laid into a gilt-stamped, brown cloth clamshell box. Noted American artist/illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) is best known for his realistic and humorous scenes of small town life in America. He painted over 300 covers for the "Saturday Evening Post" (1916-1965) after beginning his career at age 18 as an illustrator for "Boy's Life". Rockwell also painted politically significant works, such as his cover illustration of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" (1943) and of Presidential candidates. Scenic Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills, a favorite vacation destination for Bostonians and New Yorkers, was Rockwell's home from 1953 until his death, and it is the site of the Norman Rockwell Museum. The combination of Norman Rockwell and Benjamin Franklin is an inspired one. Franklin (1706-1790), called by one recent biographer "the first American", was a printer, inventor, author and statesman of the highest caliber. His Poor Richard's Almanack, published from 1732 to 1758, combined all the weather information and practical hints expected of any almanac, with the many aphorisms still remembered and quoted today. Fine condition.