Placing second after Saying Grace in a Saturday Evening Post readers' popularity poll, Breaking Home Ties has always held the admiration of the general public but art critics who have chided Rockwell's painting for its sentimentality have had to draw their judgmental line at this work for its awe inspiring emotional realism and its technical mastery.
In 2006, an amazing discovery was made when the painting believed to be the original was identified as a replica. The original painting was found behind a secret wall in the home of the painting's owner, the deceased artist Don Trachte of Arlington, VT.
Breaking Home Ties, Norman Rockwell, 1954. Oil on canvas, 49" x 49". Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, September 25, 1954. Private collection.