Rockwell Revisited

Having helped kick off an investigation three years ago into the facts surrounding Norman Rockwell's visit to Cedar Rapids in the summer of 1944, I just had to stop by the current exhibit, "Norman Rockwell: Fact & Fiction," which is on display through Jan. 3 at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

Rockwell, in case you didn't know, came to Cedar Rapids in a roundabout way, with a friend's connection leading him here. He stayed for a few days in a local hotel and had local photographer Wes Panek take photographs of potential models for his work, "Election Day," which appeared in the Nov. 4, 1944, edition of "The Saturday Evening Post." He paid those models $5 each.

At the exhibit, (for more information, click here) you'll see about 50 black and white photographs shot in Cedar Rapids and Vermont that Rockwell used while painting six pictures used in the magazine. Five of those pictures, in watercolor, now belong to the museum and are also on display. The sixth watercolor, the magazine cover of the man dubbed Junius P. Whimple contemplating his vote while looking at a special edition of The Gazette printed for Rockwell, is apparently in a private collection somewhere.

That much I knew three years ago when I asked readers to help set the record straight. But I thought, as did most people, that Wimple was modeled after Cleveland School custodian E.F. Bernstorf who posed for a series of photographs. But now, it turns out, the actual model was George Zimmer of Vermont, a frequent subject for Rockwell, who does bear a resemblance to Bernstorf.

It is unknown why Rockwell switched models or even how the five watercolors wound up in Cedar Rapids, although Rockwell was known to give some of his paintings away for the asking.

These five paintings belong to the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce for decades until 2007. That's when officials decided they were not in the business of collecting art (the paintings had been stored at the Museum of Art) and announced they would auction them off, along with paintings by Grant Wood and Marvin Cone. A community outcry led to fund raising efforts that allowed the Museum of Art to purchase all of the paintings for $500,000.

While the Rockwell paintings had an estimated value of $200,000 to $300,000 at the time, they are really priceless to this community. As museum executive director Terry Pitts says, "These are really a wonderful part of the city history and when the community was used to typify the Midwest, all all of America, for a wonderful story about democracy.

"They have so much more meaning in this town," he added, "than they would anywhere else."