Where Is Rosie the Riveter? Museum Location

Q: Where can I see Rosie the Riveter?

Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter hangs at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum acquired it in 2002.

Q: Who modeled for Rosie?

Mary Doyle Keefe, a 19-year-old telephone operator from Arlington, Vermont, posed for Rockwell. He paid her $10. She later said she was much slimmer than the muscular figure he painted.

Q: Is this the same as the 'We Can Do It' poster?

No. Rockwell's painting and J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" poster are different works. Miller's bandana-wearing woman was a factory morale poster, while Rockwell's appeared on the Saturday Evening Post cover.

Q: What inspired the pose?

Rockwell borrowed the pose from Michelangelo's prophet Isaiah on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. He often referenced Old Master compositions in his popular illustrations.

Norman Rockwell painted this iconic image for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on May 29, 1943. A muscular woman in denim and goggles rests her riveting gun across her lap while eating a sandwich, her penny loafers propped on a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf. Rockwell modeled her pose after Michelangelo's prophet Isaiah from the Sistine Ceiling.

The painting became a symbol of women's wartime labor, though Rockwell's Rosie is distinct from the "We Can Do It!" poster often confused with her. His version shows real grit: paint-smudged arms, a worn lunch pail, and an American flag backdrop. The model was 19-year-old telephone operator Mary Doyle Keefe, whom Rockwell paid $10 for the sitting.

Rockwell later felt he'd made Rosie too masculine and apologized to Keefe. The painting sold privately for years before Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas acquired it in 2002 for nearly $5 million.

Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter hangs at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum acquired it in 2002.

Mary Doyle Keefe, a 19-year-old telephone operator from Arlington, Vermont, posed for Rockwell. He paid her $10. She later said she was much slimmer than the muscular figure he painted.

No. Rockwell's painting and J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" poster are different works. Miller's bandana-wearing woman was a factory morale poster, while Rockwell's appeared on the Saturday Evening Post cover.

Rockwell borrowed the pose from Michelangelo's prophet Isaiah on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. He often referenced Old Master compositions in his popular illustrations.

Rosie the Riveter

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Also at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

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