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Photo: AP Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Image 2 of 7 A view of a drawing of the Burden Iron Works during the height of its operation. The smaller building on the far in the drawing is still standing and is currently the Burden Iron Works Museum in RiverSpark Heritage Area in Troy. less A view of a drawing of the Burden Iron Works during the height of its operation. The smaller building on the far in the drawing is still standing and is currently the Burden Iron Works Museum in RiverSpark ... more Photo: Hearst Image 3 of 7 The building at 296 Fourth Street in Troy, New York that inspired Norman Rockwell's "The Street Was Never The Same." The building at 296 Fourth Street in Troy, New York that inspired Norman Rockwell's "The Street Was Never The Same." Photo: DG Image 4 of 7 The Norman Rockwell painting "The Street Was Never The Same" features a house on Fourth Street in South Troy. The Norman Rockwell painting "The Street Was Never The Same" features a house on Fourth Street in South Troy. Photo: DG Image 5 of 7 Image 6 of 7 Times Union staff photo by Lori Van Buren -- Norman Rockwell's vision of Troy's Little Italy in 1903 came alive with the reenactment of his painting "The Street Was Never The Same" at 296 Fourth Street in Troy, NY on Norman Rockwell's vision of Troy's Little Italy in 1903 came alive with the reenactment of his painting "The Street Was Never The Same" at 296 Fourth Street in Troy on June 28, 2008. . less Times Union staff photo by Lori Van Buren -- Norman Rockwell's vision of Troy's Little Italy in 1903 came alive with the reenactment of his painting "The Street Was Never The Same" at 296 Fourth Street in ... more Photo: ALBANY TIMES UNION Image 7 of 7 Norman Rockwell's $46M view of South Troy 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

The $46 million paid for Norman Rockwell’s 1951 painting “Saying Grace” on Wednesday set an all-time record for an American painting sold at auction, according to Sotheby’s in New York City.

The painting shows a grandmother and grandson in prayer at a busy luncheonette as other customers look on. Outside the window is the Burden Iron Works, with an idling New York Central steam locomotive, in South Troy.

Local historian Don Rittner, writing in his blog on the Times Union website in August 2011 about Rockwell’s connections to Troy, described how Rockwell used a photo of the Burden Iron Works to paint the view outside the restaurant window. His report is here.

The painting, like many Rockwell did, used scenes from Troy, which was the nearest significant city to his Stockbridge, Mass., studio. Rockwell earlier lived in Arlington, Vt.

Another painting, “Walking to Church,” also shows several Troy buildings. It sold for $3.2 million at the same auction. Both paintings as well as a third, “The Gossips,” have been on loan and displayed at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge.

The paintings were owned by the family of Kenneth Stuart, who was Rockwell’s art director at The Saturday Evening Post, the Associated Press reported. The buyer wasn’t identified.

Rockwell, who died in 1978, was paid $3,500 for “Saying Grace,” which appeared on the cover of the magazine at Thanksgiving in 1951.