In 1953, Norman Rockwell and his wife Mary relocated from Arlington, Vermont, to the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The small town of 2100 people provided new faces and new inspirations for pictures like Family Tree, which traced the lineage of the "all-American boy" from a sixteenth-century pirate and his Spanish princess captured on the Caribbean Sea. But before his genealogical epic could be published for Post readers, Rockwell's own family tree would be shaken. In the summer of 1959, Mary, his wife of 28 years, died suddenly of cardiac arrest. The following summer Rockwell joined a local sketch class-good therapy for a man descending into depression. Support also came from Austen Riggs Center therapist Erik Erikson, whom Rockwell had been seeing for work-related problems. In 1961, he married Molly Punderson, who shared his love of travel. The couple visited more than 18 countries from 1963 to 1974. Some trips were associated with assignments; others were solely for rest.

In the early 1960s, when The Saturday Evening Post's advertising revenue was undermined by television, the magazine turned to the less costly medium of photography for cover art. In 1963, with changes in the editorial staff and only political portraits being offered to Rockwell, he decided to break with the Post. Almost immediately he began work for Look magazine. Leaving behind his beloved story-telling scenes, Rockwell threw himself into a new genre-the documentation of social issues. In the years that followed, Rockwell reported on John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps program and the race to space, depicting the moon landing before and after it actually happened. In 1967, he illustrated a status report on the desegregation of our suburbs, and that fall began work on The Right to Know, an urgent call for government disclosure and accountability regarding the Vietnam War.

Despite declining health, Rockwell accepted a commission to paint the July 1976 cover of American Artist magazine, celebrating the country's bicentennial. That summer, a Stockbridge parade and celebration honored their hometown hero. With the onset of dementia and the effects of emphysema resulting from years of pipe smoking, he could no longer do the work that had so completely and passionately driven his life. In 1978, at age 84, Rockwell died at home.

During his Stockbridge years, Rockwell produced paintings that resonate to this day. The Problem We All Live With gently presents an aggressive assertion on moral decency. Art critics, connoisseurs, and historians continue to examine and reflect on The Connoisseur as they discuss "high" and "low" art and the meanings of abstract art. Art Critic will always intrigue us for its masterly technique and the delight we feel as we are drawn into its secret life.

For five decades, Rockwell opened our hearts by lovingly portraying our foibles. When he shifted his attention to the broader picture of social ills, Rockwell faced an audience ready to receive his messages, helping us evolve into a more compassionate culture.