Over the next 47 years, Rockwell produced 321 more covers for the Post . The 1930s and 1940s are generally considered to be the most fruitful decades of Rockwell's career. The family moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939, and Rockwell's work increasingly reflected small-town American life. His paintings employed wit, pathos and extraordinary technical expertise to convey stories and images that still touch young and old alike. Although Rockwell drew on the work of other great artists in creating his images, it was the ordinary routines of life that inspired his work.
Commonplaces never become tiresome.
It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative. The paintings were reproduced in the Saturday Evening Post alongside essays by prominent thinkers of the day. As an interpretation of the individual's role in a democracy, Rockwell's series proved enormously popular. A fire destroyed his Arlington studio, including numerous paintings and his collection of historic costumes and props. The Rockwell family moved from Arlington, Vermont, to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1953.