Ford Fairlane 1957

This painting of a 1957 Ford Fairlane was used in an advertising campaign by the J. Walter Thompson agency in New York. The agency was founded in 1896 by James Walter Thompson, a pioneer in American advertising. This agency was known for many distinctive campaigns for companies such as Kraft, Miracle Whip, Kellog’s and the Ford Motor Company. The Ford Fairlane was produced and sold by the Ford Motor Company from 1955 - 1970. The name of the automobile is derived from the Fairlane estate owned by Henry Ford, the founder of the company. The estate is located near Dearborn, Michigan. The artist of the painting is unknown but it could possibly be attributed to (or at least after) Norman Percevel Rockwell (1894 - 1978), an American painter and illustrator. Rockwell studied at Chase Art School, the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. A prolific and famous artist widely known for his front page illustrations of the “The Saturday Evening Post” and his ability to capture the sentiment of American culture and everyday life. His depictions of American life were often idealistic and sentimentalized. Rockwell also illustrated many books, including “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn”, worked extensively with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and was well known for his portraits of American Presidents. Here we see the portrayal of an MD (Doctor of Medicine) receiving a Ford Fairlane gift from his patients in a local town setting. Note the gentleman dressed in black, the only person in the painting looking out towards the viewer of the painting as opposed to looking at the Ford Fairlane like everybody else in the painting. Rockwell is known to portray himself as a cameo appearance in his art.