Pictures for the American People a Family Guide

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Pictures for the American People

A Family Guide NormanNorman Rockwell’sRockwell’s paintings...paintings...

Rockwell was born in New York City on February 3, Are humorous: Look at No Swimming on the 1894. When he was nine years old, his family moved cover of this guide. Rockwell often paints the funniest to the small town of Mamaroneck, New York. He was a moment in a story. Rather than picture the boys skinny boy and not very athletic, so he chose drawing swimming in the forbidden pool, Rockwell paints the as his hobby. At age eighteen, Rockwell became art moment when the rascals have been discovered and are editor of Boys’ Life, the official magazine of the Boy frantically trying to put their clothes back on as they Scouts of America. When Rockwell was twenty-two race from the scene of the crime. years old, one of his paintings appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, which showcased the works of the finest illustrators of the period. Remarkably, in Celebrate ordinary, everyday life: forty-seven years, 321 of his paintings appeared on the Rockwell’s stories about swimming holes, gossiping, cover of the Post, making him one of the most famous family vacations, and barbershops are not what you read painters of the twentieth century. about in newspaper headlines and history textbooks. Rockwell painted scenes from the daily life of ordinary Norman Rockwell created paintings to be enjoyed by people. everyone. Many fine artists create paintings and sculptures for private collectors, and sometimes this Rockwell carefully artwork is not shown to the general public. Rockwell’s Are skillfully painted: studied the works of great artists like those pictured in paintings were seen across America, as they appeared the upper right corner of the easel in Triple Self- in books, advertisements, calendars, and on the covers Portrait. He also spent weeks, even months creating his of popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening paintings. Post, Look, and Ladies’ Home Journal.

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

Rockwell often included an image of himself in his paintings. Look for a “Find Norman” symbol in this family guide. When you see it, search the painting for Rockwell’s face. Remember sometimes he is only a face in the crowd. 2 Triple Self-Portrait, 1960 The Saturday Evening Post © 1960 The Curtis Publishing Company

Many artists paint pictures of themselves, known as self-portraits. When Rockwell painted this self-portrait, he included images of some of his favorite artists and shared details about his life.

“It is no exaggeration to say simply that Norman Rockwell is the most popular, the most loved, of all TRY IT Pretend you made a contemporary artists...[H]e himself is like visit to Rockwell’s studio. You two a gallery of Rockwell paintings–friendly, human, hit it off quite well, and Rockwell told you that, as a gift, he would like deeply American, varied in mood, but full, you to select any item from this always, of the zest of living.” painting. What would you bring home and why? Draw a portrait of –Ben Hibbs, Saturday Evening Post Editor yourself with your new treasure. 3 RockwellRockwell TheThe ArtistArtist

FUN FACT Did you know Rockwell left actual globs of paint on this canvas? Look closely at the critic’s palette. Each color is a dried clump of paint! Art Critic, 1955, The Saturday Evening Post, © 1955 The Curtis Publishing Company

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?

4 Look more closely at some of Rockwell’s techniques.

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

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

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

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

• He then painted on top of this sketchy image with oil paints, which covered up the charcoal lines. Even while he was painting the picture, Rockwell often made changes in the poses, the backgrounds, and facial expressions. Photo by Gene Pelham

Photo by Bill Scovill FUN FACT The painting of the woman in Art Critic was based on photographs of Rockwell’s wife, Mary.

5 Art Critic (study), 1955, © The Curtis Publishing Company RockwellRockwell TheThe HumoristHumorist

Day in the Life of a Little Girl, 1952, The Saturday Evening Post The paintings on these two pages are called © 1952 The Curtis Publishing Company sequence paintings because they are composed of lots of little images that are combined to tell a story, just like a comic strip or a movie. The painting above is TRY IT Find a partner. Choose one of the images on entitled Day in the Life of a Little Girl. this page but don’t tell your partner which you chose. Simply Rockwell created another sequence painting imitate the action and invite your partner to guess. Switch entitled Day in the Life of a Little Boy. Look and then guess as your partner imitates one of the images. closely at this little girl’s day and try to Remember, if you were a model for Norman Rockwell, you might have to hold that pose for several minutes! 6 imagine what the boy’s day might look like. SEARCH The people who posed for The Gossips were Rockwell’s neighbors in Arlington, Vermont. His wife, Mary, appears in the painting, too. Look at her photograph on page 5 (posing for the painting Art Critic), then see if you can find her in the painting below. The answer is on page 15. The models never knew how they would look in the finished painting. FUN FACT The editor at The Saturday Evening Post did not believe that anyone could have a mouth as big as the man with the black hat. He said that no one in America would believe it. Rockwell sent him a photo of this man with his mouth open, and the editor had to agree–that man had one enormous mouth! So the painting was published exactly how Rockwell painted it.

TRY IT Write dialogue for the people in the painting. Why is the woman at the end shocked? Do you think the story the woman tells in the beginning has changed by the end? Why are some of the folks laughing? 7 InventingInventing AmericaAmerica

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 imagine what it must have been like to live in earlier times.

In the painting Going and Coming, Rockwell shows an old-fashioned tradition: family gath- erings. This family, however, is wrapped in a modern invention: the American station wagon.

LOOK Notice the feelings Rockwell shows in the top part of the painting. How are the two parts the same, how are they different? Look for the one person who remains unchanged.

During the 1940s and 1950s, a • Can you think of a TV show or movie about average feeling of hopeful idealism could people doing ordinary things in a small town? be found in a number of movies and television shows, such as It’s • If you were to write a story or make a movie, would a Wonderful Life or Leave It To it resemble your own life, or would it be a fantasy of Beaver. Like many Rockwell your imagining? paintings, these shows depicted life in an idealized American • Can you think of any changes that have taken place home. in our world since your parents were your age? 8 FUN FACT Rockwell said if he were to paint this work again, he would leave out the magazine. How would this change the meaning of the painting?

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

LOOK This painting captures a change from an old way of life SEARCH The little girl in this to a new way. See how the girl is in a room surrounded with old- painting is Mary Whalen Leonard, who fashioned things–her doll, the chair, her clothing. They all relate to Rockwell met at a basketball game. the past. She is looking in a mirror thinking about growing up, Rockwell often used her as a model and the comfortable old things around her may be Rockwell’s way because he found she could act out “any of suggesting that the old-fashioned values and traditions of the story.” Look through the family guide to past will help her as she moves into the future. find another painting in which you can find her acting out several stories. 9 HonoringHonoring thethe AmericanAmerican SpiritSpirit

When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Rockwell wanted to help in the war effort. Remembering a speech President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made earlier in the year, Rockwell painted pictures to help people better understand the four basic freedoms the president thought everyone in the world should have: freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

It took Rockwell seven months to complete the four paintings. He painted Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Worship several times before he was satisfied with the results. In the middle of the night when ponder- ing how to best depict freedom of speech, Rockwell was struck with what he called “the best idea I’d ever had.” He remembered a man who stood up at a town meeting and made a comment. Everyone disagreed with him but believed that he had the right to speak his mind. This, Rockwell thought, was what freedom Freedom of Speech, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post of speech was all about. © 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

FUN FACT Rockwell claimed that the turkey featured in Freedom from Want was, in fact, the Rockwell family’s Thanksgiving turkey. He later confessed, “This was one of the few times I’ve ever eaten the model.”

SEARCH Rockwell used many of his friends and family in this painting. The woman serving the Thanksgiving turkey in Freedom from Want was the Rockwell family cook, and he also included his wife, Mary. Look closely to find her. 10 Freedom from Want, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post © 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company SEARCH The father in Freedom from Fear appears in all four paintings. Can you find him?

FUN FACT The American people responded enthusiastically to The Four Freedoms. After the paintings appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, 70,000 people wrote letters of praise to the magazine. That’s a stack of letters over six basketball goals high!

LOOK Rockwell was able to convey complicated ideas without using words. By looking at the details of a painting–the clothing people wear, the expressions on their faces–we discover things about them that would take pages of text to explain.

TRY IT Pick a person from one of The Four Freedoms and describe everything you can about his or her life just by the details Rockwell has painted.

SEARCH The woman with a braid in her hair in Freedom to Worship also appears in another painting in this guide. Can you find her?

Freedom to Worship, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post © 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company 11 “Like everyone else, I'm concerned with the world HonoringHonoring thethe situation, and like everyone else, I'd like to contribute something to help.” AmericanAmerican SpiritSpirit –Norman Rockwell

Throughout his life, Rockwell was concerned with political issues, such as racism, poverty, and social injustice. In the 1960s, Rockwell painted for Look magazine. These illustrations addressed important events of the day and were generally less humorous than those he painted for The Saturday Evening Post.

FUN FACT During his life, Rockwell traveled to many countries in Europe, as well as India, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey.

Golden Rule, 1961, The Saturday Evening Post © 1961 The Curtis Publishing Company LOOK Rockwell used photos of his friends and neighbors in Vermont and Massachusetts to compose the painting Golden Rule. What similarities do you see between these individu- als? Notice he shows two different women holding babies. Why do you think he put two people in almost the same pose at the center of the painting?

12 When Rockwell painted New Kids in the Neighborhood, America was experiencing the civil rights movement. Families from different cultures and backgrounds were beginning to live in the same neighborhoods, eat at the same restaurants, and sit next to each other on buses.

LOOK The two groups of children in New Kids in the Neighborhood may look different, but they also have several things in common. Can you find them? When the kids start to talk and play together, what do you think they will find?

13 “Commonplaces are never tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious CelebratingCelebrating thethe or appreciative...[We] find that it is not a new scene Commonplace which is needed, but a new viewpoint.” Commonplace –Norman Rockwell

Rockwell liked to focus on the lives of ordinary people in typical American towns, enjoying the simple pleasures of life. These images proved very popular with Saturday Evening Post readers. They felt that they were seeing themselves on the cover of a magazine!

TRY IT In this painting, Rockwell carefully created a composition out of rectangles. With a dark marker, outline the rectangles you can see. Notice how Rockwell built his painting around these shapes.

LOOK When looking at the painting Shuffleton’s Barbershop, what is 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’s telling. Sometimes he leaves things hidden so we can imagine 14 stories of our own.

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is organized by The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge Stockbridge at Museum Rockwell Norman The by organized is Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People People American the for Pictures Rockwell: Norman TRY IT Make your own Saturday Evening Post cover using Rockwell’s technique (see pages 4-5 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 a sharp 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 Rockwell American 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 in New York City until Norman was 9 years old at which point they moved to the suburban commuter town of Mamaroneck. Norman left high school early to return to New York City, settling at the Arts Student League to study art where his discipline, hard work, and sense of humor were widely recognized. As a student Norman was given small illustration jobs, but his major breakthrough came in 1912 with his first book illustration 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 stubborn adherence to the old values. His ability to relate these values to the events and circumstances of a rapidly changing world made him a special person—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 illustrations completed throughout his 47 year career. He is best known for his contributions to the Saturday Evening Post for whom he produced 332 covers, beginning in 1916. It is noteworthy that the Post could automatically increase its print order by 250,000 copies when an issue had a cover 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 people who 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. He was also commissioned to illustrate over 40 books including the ever popular Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His annual contributions for the Boy Scout calendars (1925 - 1976), was only slightly overshadowed by his most popular of calendar works - the "Four Seasons" illustrations for Brown & Bigelow were published for 17 years beginning in 1947 and reproduced in various styles and sizes since 1964. Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (including Yankee Doodle Dandy, was completed in 1936 for the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's oeuvre as an illustrator. 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.

Christopher Finch, author and art curator, had this to say: "Norman Rockwell created a world that, because of its traditional elements, seems familiar 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 rather by giving old subjects his own, inimitable inflection. His career has been an ode to the ordinary, a triumph of common sense and understatement."

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

Resources From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) Norman Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous 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 of the day), Saying Grace (1951), The Problem We All Live With, and the Four Freedoms series. He is also noted for his work for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA); producing covers for their publication Boys' Life, calendars, and other illustrations.

1 Life and works 1.1 Early life Birth name Norman Percevel Rockwell 1.2 World War I February 3, 1894 1.3 Personal life Born New York City, New York 1.4 World War II 1.5 Later career Died November 8, 1978 (aged 84) Stockbridge, Massachusetts 2 Body of work 2.1 Influence Nationality United States 3 List of major works Field Painting, illustrator 4 Gallery Tra ining National Academy of Design 5 See also Art Students League 6 References Works Willie Gillis 7 Further reading Saying Grace 8 External links Four Freedoms

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, who immigrated 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 the manager 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 Academy of Design and finally to the Art Students League. There, he was taught by Thomas Fogarty, George Bridgman, and Frank Vincent DuMond; his early works were produced for St. Nicholas Magazine, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) publication Boys' Life and other juvenile publications. Joseph Csatari carried on his legacy and style for the BSA. As a student, Rockwell was given smaller, less important jobs. His first major breakthrough came in 1912 at age eighteen with 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 first published 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 entry because, 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, and weighed enough to enlist the next day. However, he was given the role of a military artist and did not see any action during his tour of duty.

Rockwell's family moved to New Rochelle, New York when Norman was 21 years old and shared a studio with the cartoonist Clyde Forsythe, who worked for The Saturday Evening Post. With Forsythe's help, he submitted his first successful cover painting to the Post in 1916, Mother's Day Scout at Ship's Wheel, 1913 Off (published on May 20). He followed that success with Circus Barker and Strongman (published on June 3), Gramps at 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 first twelve months. Norman Rockwell published a total of 322 original covers for The Saturday Evening Post over 47 years. His Sharp Harmony appeared on the cover of the issue dated September 26, 1936; depicts a barber and three clients, enjoying an a cappella song. The image The Four was adopted by SPEBSQSA in its promotion of the art. Freedoms:Freedom of Speech Rockwell's success on the cover of the Post led to covers for other magazines of the day, most notably The Literary Digest, The Country Gentleman, Leslie's Weekly, Judge, Peoples Popular Monthly and Life Magazine.

Personal life

Rockwell married his first wife, Irene O'Connor, in 1916. Irene was Rockwell's model in Mother Tucking Children into Bed, published on the cover of The Literary Digest on January 19, 1921. However, the couple were divorced in 1930. Depressed, he moved briefly to Alhambra, California as a guest of his old friend Clyde Forsythe. There he painted some of his best-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 at 24 Lord Kitchener Road in the Bonnie Crest neighborhood of New Rochelle, New York. The Four Rockwell and his wife were not very religious, although they were members of St. John's Freedoms:Freedom from Wilmot Church, an Episcopal church near their home, and had their sons baptized there as Wa n t well. 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] Rockwell himself 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 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. The series was inspired by a speech (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches /fdrthefourfreedoms.htm) by Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he described four principles for universal rights: Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, and Freedom from Fear. The paintings were published in 1943 by The Saturday Evening Post. The United States Department of the Treasury later promoted war bonds by exhibiting the originals in 16 cities. Rockwell himself considered "Freedom of Speech" to be the best of the four. That same year a fire in his studio destroyed numerous original paintings, costumes, and props. The rear of Norman Rockwell's preserved studio. Shortly after the war, Rockwell was contacted by writer Elliott Caplin, brother of cartoonist 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 to have 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 that he and his son Thomas produced his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, which was published in 1960. The Post printed excerpts from this book in eight consecutive issues, the first containing Rockwell's famous Triple Self-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 a publishing relationship that had included 322 cover paintings. He spent the next 10 years painting for Look magazine, where his work depicted his interests in civil rights, poverty and space exploration. In 1968 Rockwell was commissioned to do an album cover portrait of Mike 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 for Presidents 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 of Judy Garland in 1969.

A custodianship of his original paintings and drawings was established with Rockwell's help near his home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the Norman Rockwell Museum is still Norman Rockwell open today year round. Norman Rockwell Museum is the authoritative source for all things Norman 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 national research 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, which was formerly known as the Stockbridge Historical society and even more formerly known as the Old Corner house, in a trust. For "vivid and affectionate portraits of our country," Rockwell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, in 1977.

Rockwell died November 8, 1978 of emphysema at age 84 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. First Lady Rosalynn Carter attended 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 other misfortunes. Rockwell was also commissioned to illustrate over 40 books including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His annual contributions for the Boy Scouts' calendars between 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 slightly overshadowed by his most popular of calendar works: the "Four Seasons" illustrations for Brown & Bigelow that were published for 17 years beginning in 1947 and reproduced in various styles and sizes since 1964. Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (including "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "God Bless the Hills", which was completed in 1936 for the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's œuvre as an illustrator.

In 1969, as a tribute to Rockwell's 75th year birthday, His first Scouting calendar officials of Brown & Bigelow and the Boy Scouts of (1925) America 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 Evening Post covers, which tend toward idealistic or sentimentalized portrayals of American The Problem We All Live With life— 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 and kitsch. Writer Vladimir Nabokov sneered that Rockwell's brilliant technique was put to "banal" use, and wrote in his book Pnin: "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] One example of this more serious work is The Problem We All Live With, which dealt with the issue of school racial integration. The painting depicts a young African American girl, Ruby Bridges, 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] Beyond the Easel, 1969 Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties sold for $15.4 million at a 2006 Sotheby’s auction.[18] A calendar 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 scene also inspired by a Rockwell painting—a reproduction of which is later 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-creates Rockwell'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 Triple Self-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 Stores and the Federated discovered a reproduction of Rockwell's The Clock Mender, which depicted the great clocks of the Marshall Field and Company Building on display.[26][27] Rockwell had donated the painting depicted on the cover of the November 3, 1945 Saturday Evening Post to the store in 1948.[28] Cover of October 1920 issue of On Norman Rockwell's birthday, February 3, 2010, Google featured Popular Science magazine Rockwell's iconic image of young love "Boy and Girl Gazing at the Moon" which is also known as "Puppy Love" on its home page. The response 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) 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 Rookie Spirit of 76 (1976) (stolen in 1978 but recovered in 2001 by the FBI's Robert King Wittman) The Rookie, one of many Saturday Evening Post covers The pictures of NORMAN ROCKWELL (1894-1978) were recognized and loved by almost everybody in America. The cover of The Saturday Evening Post was his showcase for over forty years, giving him an audience larger than that of any other artist 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 a great 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 by President Franklin Roosevelt. One version of his "Freedom of Speech" painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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

In 1957 the United States Chamber of Commerce in Washington cited him as a Great Living American, saying that..."Through the magic of your talent, the folks next door - their gentle sorrows, their modest joys - have enriched our own lives and 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's last 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 Rockwell Posted 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 the America 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 an artist. At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The New York School of Art (formerly The Chase School of Art). Two years later, in 1910, he left high school to study art at The National Academy of Design. He soon transferred to The Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman, Rockwell learned the technical skills on which he relied throughout his long career.

Rockwell found success early. He painted his first commission of four Christmas cards before his sixteenth birthday. While still in his teens, he was hired as art director of Boys’ Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, and began a successful freelance career illustrating a variety of young people’s publications.

At age 21, Rockwell’s family moved to New Rochelle, New York, a community whose residents included such famous illustrators as J.C. and Frank Leyendecker and Howard Chandler Christy. There, Rockwell set up a studio with the cartoonist Clyde Forsythe and produced work for such magazines as Life, Literary Digest, and Country 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 Irene O’Connor; they divorced in 1930.

The 1930s and 1940s are generally considered to be the most fruitful decades of Rockwell’s career. In 1930 he married Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, and the couple had three sons, Jarvis, Thomas, and Peter. The family moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939, and Rockwell’s work began 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 in four consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post with essays by contemporary writers. Rockwell’s interpretations of Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear proved to be enormously popular. The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly sponsored by the Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort.

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

In 1953, the Rockwell family moved from Arlington, Vermont, to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Six years later, Mary Barstow Rockwell died unexpectedly. In collaboration with his son Thomas, Rockwell published his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, in 1960. The Saturday Evening Post carried excerpts from the best-selling book in eight consecutive 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-year association with The Saturday Evening Post and began to work for Look magazine. During his 10-year association 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 the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society, later to become Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge. 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 contents added to the trust. In 1977, Rockwell received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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

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