Private Collection, Connecticut, circa 1928
By descent to the present owner (their daughter)

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, The Fort Lauderdale Museum of the Arts; Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum; Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art; San Antonio, Texas, Marion Koogler McNay Institute; San Francisco, California, M.H. De Young Memorial Museum; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma Art Center; Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis Museum of Art; Omaha, Nebraska, Joslyn Art Museum; Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective, February 1972-April 1973, illustrated in color p. 49

The Saturday Evening Post, May 26, 1928, illustrated in color on the cover, ©SEPS. Licensed by Curtis Licensing. All Rights Reserved.
Norman Rockwell, The Norman Rockwell Album, Garden City, New York, 1961, p. 36, illustrated
Thomas Buechner, Norman Rockwell: Artist & Illustrator, New York, 1970, illustrated fig. 196, p. 106
Christopher Finch, Norman Rockwell’s America, New York, 1975, no. 266, p. 207, illustrated in color p. 208
Mary Moline, Norman Rockwell Encyclopedia: A Chronological Catalogue of the Artist’s Work 1910-1978, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1979, illustrated fig. 1-215, p. 50
Dr. Donald Stoltz and Marshall L. Stoltz, Norman Rockwell and ‘The Saturday Evening Post:' 1916-1928, New York, 1976, vol. I, p. 213, illustrated in color p. 214
Susan E. Meyer, Norman Rockwell’s People, New York, 1981, p. 53, illustrated
Laurie Norton Moffatt, Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, vol. I, no. C295, p.110-111, illustrated
Jan Cohn, Covers of “The Saturday Evening Post:" Seventy Years of Outstanding Illustration from America’s Favorite Magazine, New York, 1995, illustrated in color p. 122
Judy Goffman Cutler and Laurence S. Cutler, Norman Rockwell’s America in England, Newport, Rhode Island, 2010, illustrated in color p. 176

This work is in good condition. The canvas is lined. There is some horizontal cracking most apparent in the white background of the canvas. Under UV: There are a few scattered dots and dashes of inpainting in the background concentrated at the edges, and two horizontal bands of inpainting in the upper right of the background to conceal where The Saturday Evening Post masthead stripes once appeared.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present work originally appeared on the May 26, 1928 cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Described by Norman Rockwell as “one of my best of this period,” the painting features one of his favorite models of the 1920s, James K. Van Brunt. An ideal model and source of inspiration, Van Brunt posed for Rockwell in a wide variety of narratives and as numerous characters, including a cowboy (Dreams of Long Ago, 1927, Private Collection), and two old ladies gossiping (The Gossips, 1929, Private Collection). In Man Painting the Flagpole, Brunt sits near the top of a lofty flagpole, holding himself upright with one arm as he diligently gilds the stately eagle that adorns its pinnacle. A faint, city skyline appears in the distance beneath him. With an extra paintbrush in his pocket and a bucket of gold paint at his side, he methodically completes his work while puffing on a pipe that protrudes from underneath his bushy mustache. The composition emphasizes the patriotic symbolism of the American eagle, white simultaneously portraying a sympathetic view of people at work—a theme Rockwell revisited throughout his career.

Later in life, Rockwell recalled the day that the diminutive but enthusiastic Van Brunt arrived at his studio in New Rochelle: “I remember it was June and terribly hot…Suddenly the downstairs door banged and I heard someone come up the stairs treading on each step with a loud, deliberate thump. My word, I thought, here comes a monster. A sharp, peremptory knock rattled the door…The door was thrust open and a tiny old man with a knobby nose, an immense, drooping mustache, and round, heavy-lidded eyes stamped bellicosely into the studio. ‘James K. Van Brunt, sir’ he said, saluting me and bowing all at once. ‘Five feet two inches tall, sir. The exact height of Napoleon Bonaparte.’… And he rapped his cane on the floor and looked at me very belligerently. Then, having ascertained that I wasn’t going to contradict him, he took off his gloves and his wide-brimmed hat, laid them on a chair, and patted his mustache. ‘This mustache, sir,’ he said, ‘is eight full inches wide from tip to tip. The ladies, sir, make much of it.’ And he winked at me and walked over to my mirror to stare at his mustache” (Norman Rockwell, Norman Rockwell: My Adventures as an Illustrator, New York, 1994, p. 203).

From the outset, it was Van Brunt’s magnificent mustache—neatly trimmed, parted in the middle, and swept downward—that attracted Rockwell, and he immediately began to sketch the man, claiming “What a face! And mine…all mine" (Rockwell, p. 203). That night, Rockwell began his first Post cover featuring Van Brunt, and a long working relationship and friendship commenced. Rockwell later fondly described the day that the old man first appeared at his studio as being “one of the luckiest days of my life” (Rockwell, p. 203).