Incandescent

Norman Rockwell Museum celebrates the illuminating artwork of masters from the Golden Age of Illustration

Through January 4, 2026
Norman Rockwell Museum
9 Glendale Road,
Stockbridge, MA 01262
t: (413) 298-4100, www.nrm.org

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was in his mid-20s when he was commissioned to produce a series of paintings for an advertising campaign promoting Edison Mazda Lamps (a division of General Electric). Many of the other illustrators were a decade or even a generation older than he.

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), All’s Right Says the Light—Sweethearts, 1922. Advertising illustration for Edison Mazda Lamps, oil on canvas. Collection of GE Aerospace.

N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), The Torch Race, 1936. Calendar illustration for Edison Mazda Lamps, oil on canvas. Collection of GE Aerospace.

Charles Chambers (1883-1941), The Magic that Makes Houses Homes, 1921. Advertising illustration for Edison Mazda Lamps, oil on canvas mounted on board. Collection of GE Aerospace.

An exhibition of the rarely seen paintings is being shown at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, through January 4, 2026. Illustrators of Light: Rockwell, Wyeth, and Parrish from the Edison Mazda Collection includes 16 original works, including eight by Rockwell. They are on loan for the first time through GE Aerospace.

The museum’s chief curator, Stephanie Plunkett comments, “Knowing that his work would be in the company of successful illustrators like Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, and Dean Cornwell, among others, Rockwell was challenged to do his absolute best.”

In the day of smart phones, the internet and AI, it’s difficult to imagine the impact of electricity and the light bulb. Edison Mazda patented their version of the tungsten bulb in 1906 and strove to replace carbon filament bulbs with a brighter, more dependable product. The 1920 campaign promoted the company’s new tungsten filament light bulbs.

Bruce Barton of Barton, Durstine & Osborn, was commissioned by General Electric to market the bulbs through a series of ads emphasizing the virtues of electric light. Barton provided lyrical copy and the artists conveyed “the beauty, wonder, and life-changing qualities of light, making the campaign an unequivocal success,” according to the museum. The advertisements widely circulated in publications like The Saturday Evening Post and Ladies’ Home Journal.

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Man Playing Cards by Lamplight, 1921. Advertising illustration for Edison Mazda Lamps (unpublished), oil on canvas. Collection of GE Aerospace.

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), Dawn, 1917. Advertising illustration for Edison Mazda Lamps, oil on panel. Collection of GE Aerospace.

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), She was a Queen and I was a King (Grandfather with Children), 1920. Advertising illustration for Edison Mazda Lamps, oil on canvas. Collection of GE Aerospace.

Edison Mazda’s name honors Thomas Edison who made the first high-resistance, incandescent electric light in 1879 and Ahura Mazda, the ancient Persian god associated with wisdom and light.

N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) featured ancient light in the form of torches carried by Greek Olympians in his painting, The Torch Race, 1936. Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) developed the Edison Mazda Lamps logo in 1924.

Dean Cornwell (1892-1960), Lighting the First Incandescent Lamp, Edison’s Laboratory, Melo Park, New Jersey, 1940. Calendar illustration for Edison Mazda Lamps, oil on canvas. Collection of GE Aerospace.

Rockwell’s All’s Right Says the Light—Sweethearts, 1922, is his interpretation of Barton’s text, “Finished is the little house; the furniture is all in place. And side by side they sit together looking forward into the years….on the table behind them the friendly lamp gleams its cheerful ‘All’s right.’” —