Director Laurie Norton Moffatt, standing in front of the new addition, says the museum is unable to buy original works now it depends on donors.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Original Norman Rockwell paintings are selling at record-setting prices at auction.

The prices are so high that even the Normal Rockwell Museum can't afford to buy them.

But that doesn't mean museum's collection is getting stale. Thanks to a North Carolina collector the museum unveiled its newest addition — a 1926 painting for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. 

 

The painting, "Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon (Puppy Love)" now hangs in the Stockbridge museum for the public to see. It was unveiled during a ceremony Friday morning.

 

"This picture is beloved by the public. We are so thrilled to be able to share it today. It is a wonderful Valentine's Day gift to the world," said museum Director Laurie Norton Moffatt.

 

The piece was donated by Bill Millis and his family of High Point, N.C. Millis purchased the piece in 1975 for $27,000 from a showing at the Bernard Dannenberg Galleries in New York City. 

 

"Over the years, I have debated what to do with the painting," said Millis in a statement. "So I decided to gift it to the museum. I thought I can go ahead and visit the museum while I'm still alive, taking my children and grandchildren. I'm just thrilled that the painting is going to be there."

 

Millis was just 26 when he purchased it and remembers writing Rockwell about it. He received a letter back saying Rockwell was happy that it had a good home. It joins 34 other Saturday Evening Post covers at its new home in Rockwell's hometown.

 

"We have about 800 original Rockwell works in our collection. Among those are 34 Saturday Evening Post covers. This picture was painted for the Saturday Evening Post in 1926 and it reveals a theme Rockwell would return to time and time again in his life — the theme of young love delivered with a tint of humor," said Norton Moffatt.

 

The painting has grown in notoriety over the years and, in 2010, was made into a Google doodle. The picture depicts two young children on a bench gazing at the moon in an embrace.

 

"This composition invites us to peer over the shoulders of the children who are not aware of our presence. Their simple fishing gear — a branch, line and a blue and orange bobbin which repeats the artist's color palette — has been placed down beside them. Enrapt as they are, they are not aware that their bait is escaping from the can or that the dog, now a third wheel, gazes longingly out from the canvas," said Deputy Director and Chief Curator Stephanie Plunkett. 

 

The image shows a transition in life as the two young children fall in love. It is placed in the museum next to another iconic image, "Marriage License." To right of that features "Marriage Counselor." All together they show both the transition of lives in the characters but also the maturing in Rockwell's paintings.

 

"The promise of love is a theme that Rockwell continued to explore throughout his career," Plunkett said.

 

The addition builds on the collection, which has become more and more difficult to expand. The Norman Rockwell Museum acquires new paintings only when they are gifted to the museum. Two Boy Scout paintings were donated last year and every few years, another donation is made.

 

"Norman Rockwell's work has been selling for a great deal of money and setting records in the auction world. The highest price for an American work of art was set at Sotheby's 18 months ago at $46 million," Norton Moffatt said.

 

"Rockwell's post covers and finished works sell for millions of dollars today and our museum will never be in the position to acquire one by purchase. We are dependent on the generosity of collectors."

 

The museum has the largest collection of Rockwell's work. Rockwell lived in Stockbridge for the last 25 years of his life, often using its residents and landscapes in his works.