THE FOUR-PANEL SERIES HUNG IN THE WHITE HOUSE FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS
By Christina Rees | November 4, 2025
Created in 1943, at the height of World War II, Norman Rockwell’s So You Want to See the President! represents one of the artist’s most ambitious and unifying achievements: a sweeping visual meditation on democracy and the human face of leadership. Now, 82 years later, the monumental work – Rockwell’s only known suite of four interrelated paintings – is the centerpiece offering in Heritage’s November 14 American Art Signature® Auction.
Commissioned by Stephen T. Early, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s trusted press secretary, So You Want to See the President! transforms the White House waiting room into a cross section of America. Soldiers, senators, Secret Service agents, and citizens share the same space, each figure rendered with Rockwell’s inimitable blend of humor, empathy, and precision.
The first panel of Rockwell’s ‘So You Want to See the President!’ features members of the press waiting to meet with FDR. The four-panel series is available in Heritage’s November 14 American Art Signature® Auction.
For more than four decades, from 1978 through 2022, the four panels hung prominently in the White House, on long-term loan from the Early family. Their presence in the Executive Mansion made them a familiar sight to presidents, dignitaries, and visitors alike – a daily reminder of the nation’s democratic spirit and of Rockwell’s rare ability to humanize history.
“Rockwell had an unparalleled gift for translating the ideals of democracy into something personal and accessible,” says Aviva Lehmann, Heritage’s Senior Vice President and Director of American Art. “In So You Want to See the President!, he turns the grandeur of the White House into a stage for ordinary Americans. It’s a work that speaks as powerfully today as it did in 1943 and represents a once-in-a-generation collecting opportunity.”
In Panel Two of Rockwell’s monumental work, a Secret Service agent stands next to a decorated Scottish officer, a beauty queen, and a ‘publicity man.’
A Vision of Democracy in Four Scenes
Each of the suite’s four panels unfolds within the same antechamber of the White House, forming a continuous narrative of anticipation. In the first, Early greets members of the press; in the second, officers and Miss America fill the room’s red sofas as Secret Service men lean on a table beneath a rack hung with the president’s gas masks – reminders of wartime vigilance; in the third, senators from opposing parties chat amiably, and generals shake hands, their presence among servicemen, Miss America, and reporters signaling Roosevelt’s vision of democracy as inclusive and cooperative; and in the final panel, the door to the Oval Office opens just enough to reveal Roosevelt at his desk, the leader of a free world glimpsed not from afar but within reach.
Rockwell’s brushwork is both meticulous and humane, his vignettes charged with the warmth and humor that defined his greatest work. As art historian Thomas S. Buechner writes, “[Rockwell’s] subject was average America … painted with such benevolent affection that a truly remarkable history of our century has been compiled.” So You Want to See the President! distills that sentiment into a single narrative, one that celebrates patience, civility, and shared purpose.
Among the White House visitors depicted in the third panel of ‘So You Want to See the President!’ are U.S. Senators Tom Connally of Texas and Warren R. Austin of Vermont, two major political figures of 1943.
From the Elam Family Collection
This historic suite comes directly from the Elam family, descendants of Stephen T. Early, whose influence on presidential communication was profound. As FDR’s press secretary and confidant, Early transformed the public’s relationship with the presidency, pioneering innovations like the “Fireside Chats” and twice-weekly press conferences. His belief in accessibility, in keeping government close to the people, inspired his 1943 commission from Rockwell, who was invited to the White House to observe and record the steady stream of visitors awaiting an audience with Roosevelt.
In 2023, a federal court affirmed that the paintings had been gifted by Early during his lifetime to his descendant, William Nile Elam III, reaffirming both the family’s stewardship and the historical continuum linking Rockwell, Early, and Roosevelt.
In the final panel of the series, the door to the Oval Office stands slightly ajar, revealing a glimpse of Roosevelt at his desk.
A Defining American Masterwork
For collectors, historians, and admirers of Rockwell, So You Want to See the President! represents a singular opportunity: a complete, conceptually unified suite by America’s most beloved visual storyteller. “This group embodies everything that makes Rockwell essential – narrative, empathy, and a distinctly American optimism,” Lehmann says. “It’s incredibly rare to encounter a work by Rockwell that operates simultaneously as fine art, social history, and civic document. This suite does all three and does so with heart, humor, and hope.”
