In honor of the second Red Sox World Series Championship in four seasons and opening day in Japan and Boston, the MFA proudly presents "Rockwell and the Shinjin: Celebrating Baseball and the Red Sox." The exhibition, on view in the Upper Rotunda, features The Rookie by beloved American artist Norman Rockwell. This popular painting, briefly on loan to the Museum, depicts the Red Sox locker room in 1957. The image appeared that year on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

Two of the Red Sox 2007 rookies, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima, hail from Japan, where the season opened this year. These shinjin ("rookie" in their native language) were among the first Japanese players to join the team. To complement the painting and to pay tribute to the history of baseball in Japan and the United States, a special selection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century works on paper and memorabilia from both countries are on display. Among the highlights are early twentieth-century Japanese postcards, a drawing by Boston artist William Morris Hunt, and items from the 2004 and 2007 World Series Championships.

Above: Norman Perceval Rockwell, The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room), 1957. Oil on canvas. Anonymous loan. © 1957 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN. All rights reserved. www.curtispublishing.com. Image appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, March 2, 1957.
Norman Rockwell rights of publicity licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL.