Pictures for the American People

A Family Guide

LOOK Look closely at the painting Triple Self-Portrait. Can you find these items? See page 15 for answers.

• The “antique” that fooled Rockwell• The soft drink he often enjoyed as he worked• A reference to the accidental burning of his studio• A tribute to the great artists he admired

Are humorous: Look at No Swimming on thecover of this guide. Rockwell often paints the funniestmoment in a story. Rather than picture the boys swimming in the forbidden pool, Rockwell paints themoment when the rascals have been discovered and arefrantically trying to put their clothes back on as theyrace from the scene of the crime.

Celebrate ordinary, everyday life:Rockwell’s stories about swimming holes, gossiping,family vacations, and barbershops are not what you readabout in newspaper headlines and history textbooks.Rockwell painted scenes from the daily life of ordinarypeople.

Are skillfully painted: Rockwell carefullystudied the works of great artists like those pictured inthe upper right corner of the easel in Triple Self-Portrait. He also spent weeks, even months creating hispaintings.

Rockwell was born in New York City on February 3,1894. When he was nine years old, his family movedto the small town of Mamaroneck, New York. He was askinny boy and not very athletic, so he chose drawingas his hobby. At age eighteen, Rockwell became arteditor of Boys’ Life, the official magazine of the BoyScouts of America. When Rockwell was twenty-twoyears old, one of his paintings appeared on the cover ofThe Saturday Evening Post, which showcased the worksof the finest illustrators of the period. Remarkably, inforty-seven years, 321 of his paintings appeared on thecover of the Post, making him one of the most famouspainters of the twentieth century.

Norman Rockwell created paintings to be enjoyed byeveryone. Many fine artists create paintings and sculptures for private collectors, and sometimes thisartwork is not shown to the general public. Rockwell’spaintings were seen across America, as they appearedin books, advertisements, calendars, and on the coversof popular magazines, such as The Saturday EveningPost, Look, and Ladies’ Home Journal.

Rockwell oftenincluded an image

of himself in hispaintings. Look for a

“Find Norman” symbol inthis family guide. When you see it,search the painting for Rockwell’sface. Remember sometimes he isonly a face in the crowd.

Norman Rockwell’s paintings...Norman Rockwell’s paintings...

2

Many artists paint pictures of themselves,known as self-portraits.When Rockwell paintedthis self-portrait, heincluded images of someof his favorite artistsand shared details about his life.

TRY IT Pretend you made avisit to Rockwell’s studio. You twohit it off quite well, and Rockwelltold you that, as a gift, he would likeyou to select any item from thispainting. What would you bringhome and why? Draw a portrait ofyourself with your new treasure.

“It is no exaggeration to say simply that NormanRockwell is the most popular, the most loved, of all

contemporary artists...[H]e himself is likea gallery of Rockwell paintings–friendly, human,

deeply American, varied in mood, but full, always, of the zest of living.”

–Ben Hibbs, Saturday Evening Post Editor

Triple Self-Portrait, 1960The Saturday Evening Post© 1960 The Curtis PublishingCompany

3

FUN FACTDid you know

Rockwell left actualglobs of paint on

this canvas? Lookclosely at the critic’spalette. Each coloris a dried clump of

paint!

Rockwell The Artist

LOOK Here is a finished painting entitled Art Critic. To the right is an early sketch.How many differences can you find between the two versions? Can you think of any reasons why Rockwell changed what he did?

Art Critic, 1955, The Saturday Evening Post, © 1955 The Curtis Publishing Company

Rockwell The Artist

4

Rockwell didn’t just sit down and begin to paint. Each painting was carefullyplanned, and many took several months to complete.

• When he had an idea for a painting, Rockwell often took photographs ofmodels (sometimes his friends and neighbors) in various poses. A photo heused to create Art Critic is shown at the right.

• He then mixed and matched details from these photos and made numerouspencil sketches, rearranging the composition and adding new details.

• Rockwell sometimes coated the back of his final sketch with charcoal dustand laid it on top of a canvas. By tracing the top image, he left a dust outlineon the canvas.

• He then painted on top of this sketchy image with oil paints, which coveredup the charcoal lines. Even while he was painting the picture, Rockwell oftenmade changes in the poses, the backgrounds, and facial expressions.

Look more closely at some of Rockwell’s techniques.

5

FUN FACTThe painting of thewoman in Art Criticwas based on photo-graphs of Rockwell’swife, Mary.

Art Critic (study), 1955, © The Curtis Publishing Company

Photo by Gene Pelham

Photo by Bill Scovill

The paintings on these two pages are calledsequence paintings because they are composed of lots of little images that arecombined to tell a story, just like a comicstrip or a movie. The painting above is entitled Day in the Life of a Little Girl.Rockwell created another sequence paintingentitled Day in the Life of a Little Boy. Lookclosely at this little girl’s day and try to imagine what the boy’s day might look like.

Rockwell The Humorist

TRY IT Find a partner. Choose one of the images on this page but don’t tell your partner which you chose. Simply imitate the action and invite your partner to guess. Switch and then guess as your partner imitates one of the images.Remember, if you were a model for Norman Rockwell, youmight have to hold that pose for several minutes!

Day in the Life of a Little Girl, 1952, The Saturday Evening Post© 1952 The Curtis Publishing Company

Rockwell The Humorist

6

FUN FACTThe editor at TheSaturday Evening Postdid not believe thatanyone could have amouth as big as theman with the blackhat. He said that noone in Americawould believe it.Rockwell sent him aphoto of this manwith his mouth open,and the editor had toagree–that man hadone enormous mouth!So the painting waspublished exactly howRockwell painted it.

The Gossips, 1948, The Saturday Evening Post© 1948 The Curtis Publishing Company

SEARCH The people who posed for The Gossips were Rockwell’s neighbors inArlington, Vermont. His wife, Mary, appears in the painting, too. Look at her photo-graph on page 5 (posing for the painting Art Critic), then see if you can find her in thepainting below. The answer is on page 15. The models never knew how they wouldlook in the finished painting.

TRY IT Write dialogue for the people in thepainting. Why is the woman at the end shocked?

Do you think the story the woman tells in thebeginning has changed by the end? Why are some of the folks laughing?

7

During the 1940s and 1950s, afeeling of hopeful idealism couldbe found in a number of moviesand television shows, such as It’sa Wonderful Life or Leave It ToBeaver. Like many Rockwellpaintings, these shows depictedlife in an idealized Americanhome.

America went through many changes during Rockwell’s sixty-year career. He often illustrated these transitions from an old way of life to a new future by combining something traditional with something modern. Today, these paintings help us imaginewhat it must have been like to live in earlier times.

In the painting Goingand Coming, Rockwellshows an old-fashionedtradition: family gath-erings. This family,however, is wrapped ina modern invention:the American stationwagon.

LOOK Noticethe feelings Rockwellshows in the top partof the painting. Howare the two parts thesame, how are theydifferent? Look for theone person whoremains unchanged.

Inventing America

Going and Coming, 1947The Saturday Evening Post© 1947 The Curtis Publishing Company

Inventing America

8

• Can you think of a TV show or movie about averagepeople doing ordinary things in a small town?

• If you were to write a story or make a movie, wouldit resemble your own life, or would it be a fantasy ofyour imagining?

• Can you think of any changes that have taken placein our world since your parents were your age?

Rockwell remembers thinking about growing up when he was a child. He was a bit concerned aboutnot always fitting in with the other kids, “When I got to be ten or eleven…I could see I wasn’t God’sgift to man in general or to the baseball coach in particular….At the age boys who are athletes wereexpressing themselves fully….I didn’t have that. All I had was my ability to draw.”

Girl at Mirror, 1954The Saturday Evening Post

© 1954 The Curtis PublishingCompany

FUN FACTRockwell said if he

were to paint thiswork again, he

would leave outthe magazine.

How would thischange the

meaning of thepainting?

LOOK This painting captures a change from an old way of lifeto a new way. See how the girl is in a room surrounded with old-fashioned things–her doll, the chair, her clothing. They all relate tothe past. She is looking in a mirror thinking about growing up,and the comfortable old things around her may be Rockwell’s wayof suggesting that the old-fashioned values and traditions of thepast will help her as she moves into the future.

SEARCH The little girl in thispainting is Mary Whalen Leonard, whoRockwell met at a basketball game.Rockwell often used her as a modelbecause he found she could act out “anystory.” Look through the family guide tofind another painting in which you canfind her acting out several stories.

9

When the United States entered World War II inDecember 1941, Rockwell wanted to help in the wareffort. Remembering a speech President Franklin D.Roosevelt had made earlier in the year, Rockwellpainted pictures to help people better understand thefour basic freedoms the president thought everyone inthe world should have: freedom of speech, freedom toworship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

It took Rockwell seven months to complete the fourpaintings. He painted Freedom of Speech and Freedomto Worship several times before he was satisfied withthe results. In the middle of the night when ponder-ing how to best depict freedom of speech, Rockwellwas struck with what he called “the best idea I’d everhad.” He remembered a man who stood up at a townmeeting and made a comment. Everyone disagreedwith him but believed that he had the right to speakhis mind. This, Rockwell thought, was what freedomof speech was all about.

FUN FACT Rockwell claimedthat the turkey featured in Freedomfrom Want was, in fact, the Rockwellfamily’s Thanksgiving turkey. He laterconfessed, “This was oneof the few times I’veever eaten themodel.”

Honoring the American SpiritHonoring the American Spirit

Freedom of Speech, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post© 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

Freedom from Want, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post© 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

SEARCH Rockwell used many of his friends and family in this painting. The woman serving theThanksgiving turkey in Freedom from Want was theRockwell family cook, and he also included his wife,Mary. Look closely to find her.

10

FUN FACTThe American people

responded enthusiastically toThe Four Freedoms. After the

paintings appeared in TheSaturday Evening Post, 70,000people wrote letters of praise

to the magazine. That’s astack of letters over six basketball goals high!

LOOK Rockwell was able toconvey complicated ideas withoutusing words. By looking at thedetails of a painting–the clothingpeople wear, the expressions on theirfaces–we discover things about themthat would take pages of text toexplain.

Freedom to Worship, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post© 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

Freedom from Fear, 1943The Saturday Evening Post

© 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

SEARCH The father in Freedom from Fearappears in all four paintings. Can you find him?

SEARCH The woman witha braid in her hair in Freedom toWorship also appears in anotherpainting in this guide. Can you findher?

TRY IT Pick a person fromone of The Four Freedoms anddescribe everything you can abouthis or her life just by the detailsRockwell has painted.

11

FUN FACTDuring his life,Rockwell traveled tomany countries inEurope, as well asIndia, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey.

“Like everyone else, I'm concerned with the world situation, and like everyone else, I'd like to

contribute something to help.”–Norman Rockwell

Golden Rule, 1961, The Saturday Evening Post© 1961 The Curtis Publishing Company

Honoring the American SpiritHonoring the American Spirit

Throughout his life,Rockwell was concernedwith political issues, suchas racism, poverty, andsocial injustice. In the1960s, Rockwell paintedfor Look magazine. Theseillustrations addressedimportant events of theday and were generallyless humorous than thosehe painted for TheSaturday Evening Post.

LOOK Rockwell used photos of his friendsand neighbors in Vermont and Massachusettsto compose the painting Golden Rule. Whatsimilarities do you see between these individu-als? Notice he shows two different womenholding babies. Why do you think he put twopeople in almost the same pose at the center ofthe painting?

12

When Rockwell painted New Kids in theNeighborhood, America was experiencing thecivil rights movement. Families from differentcultures and backgrounds were beginning tolive in the same neighborhoods, eat at the samerestaurants, and sit next to each other on buses.

LOOK The two groups of children in NewKids in the Neighborhood may look different, butthey also have several things in common. Canyou find them? When the kids start to talk andplay together, what do you think they will find?

New Kids in the Neighborhood, 1967, Look © 1967 The Norman Rockwell

Estate Licensing Company

13

“Commonplaces are never tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curiousor appreciative...[We] find that it is not a new scene

which is needed, but a new viewpoint.”–Norman Rockwell

Celebrating the Commonplace

Rockwell liked to focuson the lives of ordinarypeople in typicalAmerican towns,enjoying the simplepleasures of life. These images provedvery popular withSaturday Evening Postreaders. They felt thatthey were seeing themselves on thecover of a magazine!

Shuffleton’s Barbershop, 1950The Saturday Evening Post© 1950 The Curtis Publishing Company

Celebrating the Commonplace

TRY IT In this painting,Rockwell carefully created a

composition out of rectangles.With a dark marker, outline the

rectangles you can see. Noticehow Rockwell built his painting

around these shapes.

14

LOOK When looking at the painting Shuffleton’s Barbershop, whatis your viewpoint? Where are you standing as you look in on this scene?

What kinds of clues can you find about the shop? Who might work there? What other hobbies do they have?

Who are the people inside, and how long have they known each other?Can you think of a tune they might be playing? What other

instruments might be in the group hidden from our view?

Rockwell gives us lots of clues to help us understand the story he’stelling. Sometimes he leaves things hidden so we can imagine

stories of our own.

ANSWERSPage 2The gold helmetatop the easel: Rockwellthought it was an antiquearmy helmet but laterdiscovered it was just afireman’s hat!

Norman Rockwell’s dailycola drink is precariouslyperched on his art book.

The smoke rising fromthe trash can is a refer-ence to the accidentalburning of Rockwell’s stu-dio in 1943.

The pictures pinned toRockwell’s canvas are self-portraits by AlbrechtDürer, Rembrandt, PabloPicasso, and Vincent vanGogh.

Page 7Mary is the sec-ond person from the leftin the third row.

ON THE COVER No Swimming, 1921, The Saturday Evening Post© 1921 The Curtis Publishing Company

T H E D N R E D O M E E D

R L A N O I T I D A R T E

E A R S P I H S O G I H A

D C O M M O N P L A C E M

B I T O T H A W R Z H L E

E T A D E U M T A I A L R

C I R E R M R E I N M E I

N L T E B O O P C E O W C

E O S R P R N A I T D K A

U P U F E O H I L R E C N

Q I L E L U R N E D L O G

E E L G S S E T C H S R Y

S D I P H O T O G R A P H

WORD SEARCHtraditionalmodernmagazinegolden rule

self-portraitNormanRockwellsequence

Page 7 (Find Norman)Rockwell appears in thelast row, pointing at thewoman. He was thesubject of thegossip.

Page 9She also was themodel for Day in the Lifeof a Little Girlon page 6.

Page 10Mary Rockwellis sitting on the left ofthe table, and Rockwell’smother is on the right.

Page 10 (Find Norman)Only a portion ofRockwell’s face can beseen. His eye is visibleon the left edge of thepainting, looking at theman speaking.

Page 11Rose Hoyt alsoappears in Golden Rule.

15

politicalillustratorhumorouscommonplace

freedomsphotographmodelsAmerican

Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People is organized by The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge

and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

The exhibition and its national tour are made possible by Ford Motor Company.

The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are also made possible by The Henry Luce Foundation.Additional support is provided by The Curtis Publishing Company and

The Norman Rockwell Estate Licensing Company. Education programs for the national tour are made possible by

Fidelity Investments through the Fidelity Foundation.

In Atlanta, the exhibition is made possible by The Fraser-Parker Foundation.

TRY IT Make your own Saturday Evening Post cover using Rockwell’s technique (see pages4-5 for ideas). Think of something you want to celebrate about your life, your town, or your

neighborhood. Sketch all the different ideas you have, then select the very best one. Using asharp pencil, lightly trace the outlines of the image in the box provided. Add more details by

tracing from different images. When you are finished, use crayons or paint to color in the image.

Resources Menu | Coffee | Library | Gallery | Lucidcafé Home | Revised: January 1, 2011

Norman RockwellAmerican Illustrator and Painter

1894 - 1978

I showed the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.

—Norman Rockwell

Norman Percevel Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894, the second son of Nancy and Waring Rockwell. He and his brother Jarvis lived inNew York City until Norman was 9 years old at which point they moved to the suburban commuter town of Mamaroneck. Norman left highschool early to return to New York City, settling at the Arts Student League to study art where his discipline, hard work, and sense of humorwere widely recognized. As a student Norman was given small illustration jobs, but his major breakthrough came in 1912 with his first bookillustration for C.H. Claudy's Tell Me Why: Stories about Mother Nature. By 1913 he was art editor for Boy's Life and just 19 years old.

Considered a modest, retiring man, not given to grand gestures, Norman impressed himself on America's collective imagination by his stubbornadherence to the old values. His ability to relate these values to the events and circumstances of a rapidly changing world made him a specialperson—both hero and friend—to millions of his compatriots.

It has often been said that Norman provided a commodity that people could rely on. This is clearly reflected in more than 4,000 illustrationscompleted throughout his 47 year career. He is best known for his contributions to the Saturday Evening Post for whom he produced 332covers, beginning in 1916. It is noteworthy that the Post could automatically increase its print order by 250,000 copies when an issue had acover by Rockwell.

Eighty magazines used his cover illustrations but, by far, no paintings by an American were ever published on such a global scale as Rockwell's"Four Freedoms." First appearing in the Post, the originals were used by the United States Treasury in a 16 city tour seen by 1,222,000 peoplewho purchased over $133,000,000 in war bonds.

Norman's ability to "get the point across" in one picture, and his flair for painstaking detail made him a favorite of the advertising industry. Hewas also commissioned to illustrate over 40 books including the ever popular Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His annualcontributions for the Boy Scout calendars (1925 - 1976), was only slightly overshadowed by his most popular of calendar works - the "FourSeasons" illustrations for Brown & Bigelow were published for 17 years beginning in 1947 and reproduced in various styles and sizes since1964. Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (includingYankee Doodle Dandy, was completed in 1936 for the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's oeuvre as an illustrator. Inhis later years, Rockwell began receiving more attention as a painter when he chose more serious subjects such as the series on racism forLook magazine.

Christopher Finch, author and art curator, had this to say: "Norman Rockwell created a world that, because of its traditional elements, seemsfamiliar to all of us, yet is recognizably his and his alone. He is an American original who left his mark not by effecting radical change but ratherby giving old subjects his own, inimitable inflection. His career has been an ode to the ordinary, a triumph of common sense andunderstatement."

Rockwell made no secret of his lifetime preference for countrified realism . . . "Things happen in the country, but you don't see them. In the cityyou are constantly confronted by unpleasantness. I find it sordid and unsettling." His time spent in the country was a great influence on hisidyllic approach to storytelling on canvas. From 1953 until his death in 1978, Norman lived at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where there is amuseum devoted to him.

Although Norman Rockwell was always at odds with contemporary notions of what an artist should be, he chose to paint life as he wanted tosee it. His themes and unique style have passed the test of time making him the best known of all American artists.

If you are aware of any Internet resources, films or books about Norman Rockwell or related subjects, or if you would like to submit comments,please send us email: rc@lucidcafe.com.

Resources

Norman Rockwell

Birth name Norman Percevel Rockwell

Born February 3, 1894New York City, New York

Died November 8, 1978 (aged 84)Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Nationality United States

Field Painting, illustrator

Training National Academy of DesignArt Students League

Works Willie GillisSaying GraceFour Freedoms

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978)was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy abroad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is mostfamous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created

for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades.[1]

Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series,Rosie the Riveter (although his Rosie was reproduced less than others ofthe day), Saying Grace (1951), The Problem We All Live With, and theFour Freedoms series. He is also noted for his work for the Boy Scoutsof America (BSA); producing covers for their publication Boys' Life,calendars, and other illustrations.

1 Life and works1.1 Early life1.2 World War I1.3 Personal life1.4 World War II1.5 Later career

2 Body of work2.1 Influence

3 List of major works4 Gallery5 See also6 References7 Further reading8 External links

Early life

Norman Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894, in New York City to Jarvis Waring Rockwell and Anne Mary "Nancy"

(née Hill) Rockwell.[2][3][4] His earliest American ancestor was John Rockwell (1588–1662), from Somerset, England, whoimmigrated to America probably in 1635 aboard the ship Hopewell and became one of the first settlers of Windsor,

Connecticut.[5] He had one brother, Jarvis Waring Rockwell, Jr., older by a year and half.[6][7] Jarvis Waring, Sr., was themanager of the New York office of a Philadelphia textile firm, George Wood, Sons & Company, where he spent his entire

career.[6][8][9]

Norman transferred from high school to the Chase Art School at the age of 14. He then went on to the National Academyof Design and finally to the Art Students League. There, he was taught by Thomas Fogarty, George Bridgman, and FrankVincent DuMond; his early works were produced for St. Nicholas Magazine, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) publicationBoys' Life and other juvenile publications. Joseph Csatari carried on his legacy and style for the BSA.

Scout at Ship's Wheel, 1913

The Four

Freedoms:Freedom of

Speech

The Four

Freedoms:Freedom from

Want

As a student, Rockwell was given smaller, less important jobs. His first major breakthrough came in 1912 at age eighteenwith his first book illustration for Carl Harry Claudy's Tell Me Why: Stories about Mother Nature.

In 1913, the nineteen-year old Rockwell became the art editor for Boys' Life, published by the Boy Scouts of America, a

post he held for three years (1913–1916).[10] As part of that position, he painted several covers, beginning with his firstpublished magazine cover, Scout at Ship's Wheel, appearing on the Boys' Life September 1913 edition.

World War I

During the First World War, he tried to enlist into the U.S. Navy but was refused entrybecause, at 6 feet (1.83 m) tall and 140 pounds (64 kg), he was eight pounds underweight.To compensate, he spent one night gorging himself on bananas, liquids and doughnuts, andweighed enough to enlist the next day. However, he was given the role of a military artistand did not see any action during his tour of duty.

Rockwell's family moved to New Rochelle, New York whenNorman was 21 years old and shared a studio with thecartoonist Clyde Forsythe, who worked for The SaturdayEvening Post. With Forsythe's help, he submitted his firstsuccessful cover painting to the Post in 1916, Mother's DayOff (published on May 20). He followed that success withCircus Barker and Strongman (published on June 3), Grampsat the Plate (August 5), Redhead Loves Hatty Perkins

(September 16), People in a Theatre Balcony (October 14) and Man Playing Santa(December 9). Rockwell was published eight times total on the Post cover within the firsttwelve months. Norman Rockwell published a total of 322 original covers for The SaturdayEvening Post over 47 years. His Sharp Harmony appeared on the cover of the issue datedSeptember 26, 1936; depicts a barber and three clients, enjoying an a cappella song. The imagewas adopted by SPEBSQSA in its promotion of the art.

Rockwell's success on the cover of the Post led to covers for other magazines of the day, mostnotably The Literary Digest, The Country Gentleman, Leslie's Weekly, Judge, PeoplesPopular Monthly and Life Magazine.

Personal life

Rockwell married his first wife, Irene O'Connor, in 1916. Irene was Rockwell's model inMother Tucking Children into Bed, published on the cover of The Literary Digest on January19, 1921. However, the couple were divorced in 1930. Depressed, he moved briefly toAlhambra, California as a guest of his old friend Clyde Forsythe. There he painted some of hisbest-known paintings including "The Doctor and the Doll". While there he met and married

schoolteacher Mary Barstow.[11] The couple returned to New York shortly after their marriage.They had three children: Jarvis Waring, Thomas Rhodes and Peter Barstow. The family lived at24 Lord Kitchener Road in the Bonnie Crest neighborhood of New Rochelle, New York.Rockwell and his wife were not very religious, although they were members of St. John'sWilmot Church, an Episcopal church near their home, and had their sons baptized there aswell. Rockwell moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939 where his work began to reflect

small-town life.[citation needed]

In 1953, the Rockwell family moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, so that his wife could be treated at the Austen Riggs

Center, a psychiatric hospital at 25 Main Street, down Main Street from where Rockwell set up his studio.[12] Rockwellhimself received psychiatric treatment from the renowned analyst Erik Erikson, who was on staff at Riggs. Erikson is said

to have told the artist that he painted his happiness, but did not live it.[13] In 1959, Mary Barstow Rockwell died

The rear of Norman Rockwell's

preserved studio.

Norman Rockwell

unexpectedly of a heart attack. In 1961, Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher.

World War II

In 1943, during the Second World War, Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms series,which was completed in seven months and resulted in his losing 15 pounds. Theseries was inspired by a speech (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefourfreedoms.htm) by Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he described fourprinciples for universal rights: Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom toWorship, and Freedom from Fear. The paintings were published in 1943 by TheSaturday Evening Post. The United States Department of the Treasury laterpromoted war bonds by exhibiting the originals in 16 cities. Rockwell himselfconsidered "Freedom of Speech" to be the best of the four. That same year a fire inhis studio destroyed numerous original paintings, costumes, and props.

Shortly after the war, Rockwell was contacted by writer Elliott Caplin, brother ofcartoonist Al Capp, with the suggestion that the three of them should make a daily

comic strip together, with Caplin and his brother writing and Rockwell drawing. King Features Syndicate is reported tohave promised a $1,000/week deal, knowing that a Capp-Rockwell collaboration would gain strong public interest.However, the project was ultimately aborted as it turned out that Rockwell, known for his perfectionism as an artist, could

not deliver material as fast as required of him for a daily comic strip.[14]

During the late 1940s, Norman Rockwell spent the winter months as artist-in-residence at Otis College of Art and Design.Students occasionally were models for his Saturday Evening Post covers. In 1949, Rockwell donated an original Post cover,"April Fool," to be raffled off in a library fund raiser.

In 1959, his wife Mary died unexpectedly, and Rockwell took time off from his work to grieve. It was during this break thathe and his son Thomas produced his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, which was published in 1960. ThePost printed excerpts from this book in eight consecutive issues, the first containing Rockwell's famous TripleSelf-Portrait.

Later career

Rockwell married his third wife, retired Milton Academy English teacher, Molly Punderson,in 1961. His last painting for the Post was published in 1963, marking the end of apublishing relationship that had included 322 cover paintings. He spent the next 10 yearspainting for Look magazine, where his work depicted his interests in civil rights, poverty andspace exploration. In 1968 Rockwell was commissioned to do an album cover portrait ofMike Bloomfield and Al Kooper for their record, The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield

and Al Kooper.[15] During his long career, he was commissioned to paint the portraits forPresidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, as well as those of foreign figures,including Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jawaharlal Nehru. One of his last works was a portrait ofJudy Garland in 1969.

A custodianship of his original paintings and drawings was established with Rockwell's helpnear his home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the Norman Rockwell Museum is stillopen today year round. Norman Rockwell Museum is the authoritative source for all thingsNorman Rockwell. The Museum's collection is the world's largest, including more than 700 original Rockwell paintings,drawings, and studies. The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies at the Norman Rockwell Museum is a nationalresearch institute dedicated to American illustration art.

When he was concerned with his health he placed his studio and the contents with the Norman Rockwell Museum, whichwas formerly known as the Stockbridge Historical society and even more formerly known as the Old Corner house, in atrust.

His first Scouting calendar

(1925)

The Problem We All Live With

Beyond the Easel, 1969

calendar

For "vivid and affectionate portraits of our country," Rockwell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the UnitedStates of America's highest civilian honor, in 1977.

Rockwell died November 8, 1978 of emphysema at age 84 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. First Lady Rosalynn Carterattended his funeral.

Norman Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing over 4,000 original works in his lifetime.Most of his works are either in public collections, or have been destroyed in fire or othermisfortunes. Rockwell was also commissioned to illustrate over 40 books including TomSawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His annual contributions for the Boy Scouts' calendarsbetween 1925 and 1976 (Rockwell was a 1939 recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the

highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America[16]), were only slightlyovershadowed by his most popular of calendar works: the "Four Seasons" illustrations forBrown & Bigelow that were published for 17 years beginning in 1947 and reproduced invarious styles and sizes since 1964. Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularlymovie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (including "YankeeDoodle Dandy" and "God Bless the Hills", which was completed in 1936 for the Nassau Innin Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's œuvre as an illustrator.

In 1969, as a tribute to Rockwell's 75th year birthday,officials of Brown & Bigelow and the Boy Scouts ofAmerica asked Rockwell to pose in Beyond the Easel,

the calendar illustration that year.[17]

Rockwell's work was dismissed by serious art critics in his lifetime.[18] Many of his

works appear overly sweet in modern critics' eyes,[19] especially the Saturday EveningPost covers, which tend toward idealistic or sentimentalized portrayals of Americanlife— this has led to the often-deprecatory adjective "Rockwellesque." Consequently,Rockwell is not considered a "serious painter" by some contemporary artists, who often regard his work as bourgeois andkitsch. Writer Vladimir Nabokov sneered that Rockwell's brilliant technique was put to "banal" use, and wrote in his bookPnin: "That Dalí is really Norman Rockwell's twin brother kidnapped by Gypsies in babyhood". He is called an "illustrator"

instead of an artist by some critics, a designation he did not mind, as it was what he called himself.[20]

However, in his later years, Rockwell began receiving more attention as a painter when he

chose more serious subjects such as the series on racism for Look magazine.[21] Oneexample of this more serious work is The Problem We All Live With, which dealt with theissue of school racial integration. The painting depicts a young African American girl, RubyBridges, flanked by white federal marshals, walking to school past a wall defaced by racist

graffiti.[22]

In 1999, The New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl said of Rockwell in ArtNews: “Rockwell

is terrific. It’s become too tedious to pretend he isn’t.”[18]

Rockwell's work was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2001.[23]

Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties sold for $15.4 million at a 2006 Sotheby’s auction.[18] A

twelve-city U.S. tour of Rockwell's works took place in 2008.[10]

Influence

In the film Empire of the Sun, a young boy (played by Christian Bale), is put to bed by his loving parents in a

Cover of October 1920 issue of

Popular Science magazine

scene also inspired by a Rockwell painting—a reproduction of which islater kept by the young boy during his captivity in a prison camp.

(Freedom from Fear, 1943).[24]

The 1994 film Forrest Gump includes a shot in a school that re-createsRockwell's "Girl with Black Eye" with young Forrest in place of the girl.

Much of the film drew heavy visual inspiration from Rockwell's art.[25]

Film director George Lucas owns Rockwell's original of The Peach Crop,and his colleague Steven Spielberg owns a sketch of Rockwell's TripleSelf-Portrait. Each of the artworks hangs in the respective filmmakers'workspaces.[18] Rockwell is a major character in an episode of Lucas’Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, “Passion for Life.”In 2005, Target Co. sold Marshall Field's to Federated Department Storesand the Federated discovered a reproduction of Rockwell's The ClockMender, which depicted the great clocks of the Marshall Field and

Company Building on display.[26][27] Rockwell had donated the paintingdepicted on the cover of the November 3, 1945 Saturday Evening Post to

the store in 1948.[28]

On Norman Rockwell's birthday, February 3, 2010, Google featuredRockwell's iconic image of young love "Boy and Girl Gazing at theMoon" which is also known as "Puppy Love" on its home page. Theresponse was so great that day that the Norman Rockwell museum's servers went down under the onslaught.[citation needed]

"Dreamland," a track from Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace's 2009 album Burn Burn, was

inspired by Rockwell's paintings.[29]

Scout at Ship's Wheel (first published magazine cover illustration, Boys' Life, September 1913)Santa and Scouts in Snow (1913)Boy and Baby Carriage (1916; first Saturday Evening Post cover)Circus Barker and Strongman (1916)Gramps at the Plate (1916)Redhead Loves Hatty Perkins (1916)People in a Theatre Balcony (1916)Tain't You (1917; first Life magazine cover)Cousin Reginald Goes to the Country (1917; first Country Gentleman cover)Santa and Expense Book (1920)Mother Tucking Children into Bed (1921; first wife Irene is the model)

No Swimming (1921)Santa with Elves (1922)Doctor and Doll (1929)Deadline (1938)The Four Freedoms (1943)

Freedom of Speech (1943)Freedom to Worship (1943)Freedom from Want (1943)Freedom from Fear (1943)

Rosie the Riveter (1943) [2] (http://www.rosietheriveter.org/painting.htm)Going and Coming (1947)Bottom of the Sixth (or The Three Umpires; 1949)Saying Grace (1951)The Young Lady with the Shiner (1953)

The Rookie, one of many Saturday

Evening Post covers

Girl at Mirror (1954)

Breaking Home Ties (1954)[30]

The Marriage License (1955)

The Scoutmaster (1956)[31]

The Runaway (1958)Triple Self-Portrait (1960)Golden Rule (1961)The Problem We All Live With (1964)Southern Justice (Murder in Mississippi) (1965) [3](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/rockwell/rockwell_mississippi.jpg.html)New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967)Russian Schoolroom (1967)The RookieSpirit of 76 (1976) (stolen in 1978 but recovered in 2001 by the FBI'sRobert King Wittman)

The pictures of NORMAN ROCKWELL (1894-1978) were recognized and lovedby almost everybody in America. The cover of The Saturday Evening Post was hisshowcase for over forty years, giving him an audience larger than that of any otherartist in history. Over the years he depicted there a unique collection of Americana,a series of vignettes of remarkable warmth and humor. In addition, he painted agreat number of pictures for story illustrations, advertising campaigns, posters,calendars, and books.

As his personal contribution during World War II, Rockwell painted the famous"Four Freedoms" posters, symbolizing for millions the war aims as described byPresident Franklin Roosevelt. One version of his "Freedom of Speech" painting isin the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rockwell left high school to attend classes at the National Academy of Design andlater studied under Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman at the Art StudentsLeague in New York. His early illustrations were done for St. Nicholas magazineand other juvenille publications. He sold his first cover painting to the Post in 1916and ended up doing over 300 more. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnsonsat for him for portraits, and he painted other world figures, including Nassar ofEgypt and Nehru of India.

In 1957 the United States Chamber of Commerce in Washington cited him as aGreat Living American, saying that..."Through the magic of your talent, the folksnext door - their gentle sorrows, their modest joys - have enriched our own livesand given us new insight into our countrymen."

The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts has established a large collection of his paintings, and has preserved Rockwell'slast studio as well.

[Preliminary study for "Freedom of Speech", 1942.This piece set an auction record at $407,000.]

- Norman Rockwell Museum - http://www.nrm.org -

About Norman RockwellPosted By admin On September 28, 2009 @ 11:33 am In | Comments Disabled

A Brief Biography

Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing theAmerica I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.—Norman Rockwell

Born in New York City in 1894, Norman Rockwell always wanted to be anartist. At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The New York Schoolof Art (formerly The Chase School of Art). Two years later, in 1910, he lefthigh school to study art at The National Academy of Design. He soontransferred to The Art Students League, where he studied with ThomasFogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustrationprepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman,Rockwell learned the technical skills on which he relied throughout his longcareer.

Rockwell found success early. He painted his first commission of fourChristmas cards before his sixteenth birthday. While still in his teens, hewas hired as art director of Boys’ Life, the official publication of the BoyScouts of America, and began a successful freelance career illustrating avariety of young people’s publications.

At age 21, Rockwell’s family moved to New Rochelle, New York, a community whose residents included suchfamous illustrators as J.C. and Frank Leyendecker and Howard Chandler Christy. There, Rockwell set up astudio with the cartoonist Clyde Forsythe and produced work for such magazines as Life, Literary Digest, andCountry Gentleman. In 1916, the 22-year-old Rockwell painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post,the magazine considered by Rockwell to be the “greatest show window in America.” Over the next 47 years,another 321 Rockwell covers would appear on the cover of the Post. Also in 1916, Rockwell married IreneO’Connor; they divorced in 1930.

The 1930s and 1940s are generally considered to be the most fruitfuldecades of Rockwell’s career. In 1930 he married Mary Barstow, aschoolteacher, and the couple had three sons, Jarvis, Thomas, and Peter.The family moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939, and Rockwell’s workbegan to reflect small-town American life.

In 1943, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s address to Congress,Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms paintings. They were reproduced infour consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post with essays bycontemporary writers. Rockwell’s interpretations of Freedom of Speech,Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear provedto be enormously popular. The works toured the United States in anexhibition that was jointly sponsored by the Post and the U.S. TreasuryDepartment and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130million for the war effort.

Although the Four Freedoms series was a great success, 1943 also broughtRockwell an enormous loss. A fire destroyed his Arlington studio as well asnumerous paintings and his collection of historical costumes and props.

In 1953, the Rockwell family moved from Arlington, Vermont, toStockbridge, Massachusetts. Six years later, Mary Barstow Rockwell diedunexpectedly. In collaboration with his son Thomas, Rockwell published his autobiography, My Adventures asan Illustrator, in 1960. The Saturday Evening Post carried excerpts from the best-selling book in eightconsecutive issues, with Rockwell’s Triple Self-Portrait on the cover of the first.

In 1961, Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher. Two years later, he ended his 47-yearassociation with The Saturday Evening Post and began to work for Look magazine. During his 10-yearassociation with Look, Rockwell painted pictures illustrating some of his deepest concerns and interests,including civil rights, America’s war on poverty, and the exploration of space.

In 1973, Rockwell established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy by placing his works in the custodianship of

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the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society, later to become Norman Rockwell Museum atStockbridge. The trust now forms the core of the Museum’s permanent collections. In 1976, in failing health,Rockwell became concerned about the future of his studio. He arranged to have his studio and its contentsadded to the trust. In 1977, Rockwell received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal ofFreedom.

In 2008, Rockwell was named the official state artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, thanks to adedicated effort from students in Berkshire County, where Rockwell lived for the last 25 years of his life.

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