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On Tuesday, the Art Institute of Chicago announced its acquisition of a study for The Dugout (1948) by Norman Rockwell. Donated by former governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner and Diana Rauner, it will be the first work by that artist in the museum’s collection.
A popular painter of American everyday life, Rockwell (1894–1978) is most famous for his cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post magazine, which published over 300 of his artworks between 1916 and 1963. This oil study depicts unhappy members of the Chicago Cubs following Chicago’s loss to the Boston Braves on May 23, 1948.
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The finished painting (a watercolor) was reproduced on the cover of the Post that September. When it appeared in print, it sealed the reputation of the team—who finished the season at the bottom of the National League—as “lovable losers.”
Rockwell regularly took reference photographs of his subjects before starting work; for The Dugout, Cubs pitcher Bob Rush, manager Charlie Grimm, catcher Al “Rube” Walker, and pitcher Johnny Schmitz all posed for him. The batboy was the Braves batboy, Frank McNulty, paid by Rockwell to put on a Cubs uniform; the elated onlookers behind the dugout were actual Braves fans who agreed to reenact their cheers and jeers.
According to Ratner, an Illinois native, he and his wife bought the painting because “I am a longtime Cubs fan and followed them as a kid, but also I am a huge fan of Norman Rockwell, who is the most iconic of American painters. We really loved owning it.”
It now hangs at the Art Institute next to Grant Wood’s 1930 painting American Gothic.
