The Marriage License Signed Print

Originally created for the June 11, 1955 Saturday Evening Post cover, The Marriage License was set in the town clerk's office just footsteps away from Rockwell's first Stockbridge studio, The Marriage License captures Rockwell's fascination with the somber wood-paneled interiors of his favorite seventeenth-century Dutch painters. Indeed, the building itself is fashioned after one pictured in Jan Vermeer's A Street in Delft. In keeping with the older style, Rockwell replaced an existing metal file cabinet in the left foreground with an old railroad station stove.

Within the historic interior, Rockwell contrasts the old man's experience with the young couple's eagerness. The clerk "is gazing dreamily at nothing, half bored, half sad; romance is routine to him." His model for the town clerk had recently lost his wife, and the authenticity of his feelings adds power to the poignancy in this study of youth and old age. -Norman Rockwell from The Norman Rockwell Album.

The purchase of any limited edition Norman Rockwell prints is accompanied by an Authenticity Certificate signed by our Museum Director, a complimentary one-year Museum family membership, and care and handling instructions for the print. Payment plans are available. All hand signed reproduction print purchases contribute directly to the Norman Rockwell Museum to preserve and present the art and legacy of Norman Rockwell. Please contact us for more information at 413.931.2237 or 800.742.9450 Or Email: MDuffy@nrm.org