The Wall Street Journal decided to look at Norman Rockwell prices as a recap on the American Paintings sales. What’s interesting about the chart is the volume of sales during ’06-’07, two of the boomier years in the last decade. But even with the credit crisis, Rockwell’s sales volume has consolidated above pre-bubble levels before Rockwell’s realism began to be re-examined:

in recent years, collectors and museums have come to embrace the artist. At auction, 87% of the Rockwell oil paintings offered for sale this year have been sold, up from 73% last year.

“The Fighting Gillises (Willie Gillis’ Generations; Willie Gillis),” portraits of a fictitious family of soldiers, sold for $926,500; it was estimated to sell for $700,000 to $1 million. […] In 2006, the 1954 painting “Breaking Home Ties” set a record and sold for $15.4 million, well over its $6 million high estimate.

At a Norman Rockwell Sale, It’s Still Cool to Be Square (Wall Street Journal)