Norman Rockwell

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Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of the country's culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, the Four Freedoms series, Saying Grace, and The Problem We All Live With. He is also noted for his 64-year relationship with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), during which he produced covers for their publication Boys' Life (now Scout Life), calendars, and other illustrations. These works include popular images that reflect the Scout Oath and Scout Law such as The Scoutmaster, A Scout Is Reverent,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and A Guiding Hand.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing more than 4,000 original works in his lifetime. Most of his surviving works are in public collections. Rockwell was also commissioned to illustrate more than 40 books, including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and to paint portraits of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, as well as those of foreign figures, including Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jawaharlal Nehru. His portrait subjects also included Judy Garland. One of his last portraits was of Colonel Sanders in 1973. His annual contributions for the Boy Scouts calendars between 1925 and 1976 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. He created artwork for advertisements for Coca-Cola, Jell-O, General Motors, Scott Tissue, and other companies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (including "Yankee Doodle Dandy"Template:Sfn and "God Bless the Hills", which was completed in 1936 for the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's oeuvre as an illustrator.

Rockwell's work was dismissed by serious art critics in his lifetime.<ref name="VanityFair">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Many of his works appear overly sweet in the opinion of modern critics,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> especially The Saturday Evening Post covers, which tend toward idealistic or sentimentalized portrayals of American life. This has led to the often deprecatory adjective "Rockwellesque". Consequently, Rockwell is not considered a "serious painter" by some contemporary artists, who regard his work as bourgeois and kitsch. Writer Vladimir Nabokov stated that Rockwell's brilliant technique was put to "banal" use, and wrote in his novel Pnin: "That Dalí is really Norman Rockwell's twin brother Template:Sic by Template:Sic in babyhood."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He is called an "illustrator" instead of an artist by some critics, a designation he did not mind, as that was what he called himself.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 Ruby Bridges, flanked by white federal marshals, walking to school past a wall defaced by racist graffiti.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This 1964 painting was displayed in the White House when Bridges met with President Barack Obama in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Life

Early years

File:BoysLifeSeptember1913.png

Scout at Ship's Wheel, 1913

Norman Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894, in New York City, to Jarvis Waring Rockwell and Anne Mary "Nancy" (née Hill) Rockwell<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn His father was a Presbyterian and his mother was an Episcopalian;Template:Sfn two years after their engagement, he converted to the Episcopal faith.Template:Sfn Rockwell's earliest American ancestor was John Rockwell (1588–1662), from Somerset, England, who immigrated to colonial North America, probably in 1635, aboard the ship Hopewell and became one of the first settlers of Windsor, Connecticut. Rockwell had one brother, Jarvis Jr., older by a year and a half.<ref name=RockwellM-NRGUinA-p10-11>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>SSDI. – SS#: 177-01-3581.</ref> Jarvis Sr. was the manager of the New York office of a Philadelphia textile firm, George Wood, Sons & Company, where he spent his entire career.<ref name=RockwellM-NRGUinA-p10-11 />Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Rockwell transferred from high school to the Chase Art School (later Parsons School of Design) at the age of 14. He then went on to the National Academy of Design and finally to the Art Students League of New York.Template:Sfn There, Rockwell was taught by Thomas Fogarty, George Bridgman, and Frank Vincent DuMond;Template:Sfn his early works were produced for St. Nicholas Magazine, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) magazine Boys' Life,Template:Sfn and other youth publications. As a student, Rockwell had some small jobs, including one as a supernumerary at the Metropolitan Opera.Template:Sfn His first major artistic job came at age 18, illustrating Carl H. Claudy's book Tell Me Why: Stories about Mother Nature.Template:Sfn

After that, Rockwell was hired as a staff artist for Boys' Life. In this role, he received 50 dollars' compensation each month for one completed cover and a set of story illustrations. It is said to have been his first paying job as an artist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At 19, Rockwell became the art editor for Boys' Life, published by the Boy Scouts of America. He held the job for three years,<ref name=Scouting08>Template:Cite journal</ref> during which Rockwell painted several covers, beginning with his first published magazine cover, Scout at Ship's Wheel, which appeared on the Boys' Life September 1913 edition.

Association with The Saturday Evening Post

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Rockwell's first Scouting calendar, 1925

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Saturday Evening Post cover (September 27, 1924)

File:Norman Rockwell - Cousin Reginald Spells Peloponnesus (Spelling Bee) - Google Art Project.jpg

Cousin Reginald Spells Peloponnesus. Norman Rockwell, 1918.

Rockwell's family moved to New Rochelle, New York, when Norman was 21 years old. They shared a studio with the cartoonist Clyde Forsythe, who worked for The Saturday Evening Post. With Forsythe's help, Rockwell submitted his first successful cover painting to the Post in 1916,Template:Sfn Mother's Day 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 on the Post cover within the first year. Ultimately, Rockwell published 323 original covers for The Saturday Evening Post over 47 years. His Sharp Harmony appeared on the cover of the issue dated September 26, 1936; it depicts a barber and three clients, enjoying an a cappella song. The image was 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, most notably the Literary Digest, the Country Gentleman, Leslie's Weekly, Judge, Peoples Popular Monthly and Life magazine.Template:Sfn

When Rockwell's tenure began with The Saturday Evening Post in 1916, he left his salaried position at Boys' Life, but continued to include scouts in Post cover images and the monthly magazine of the American Red Cross. He resumed work with the Boy Scouts of America in 1926 with production of his first of fifty-one original illustrations for the official Boy Scouts of America annual calendar, which still may be seen in the Norman Rockwell Art Gallery at the National Scouting Museum<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in Cimarron, New Mexico.

During World War I, he tried to enlist into the U.S. Navy but was refused entry because, at Template:Convert, he was eight pounds underweight for someone Template:Convert tall. To compensate, he spent one night gorging himself on bananas, liquids and doughnuts, and weighed enough to enlist the next day. He was given the role of a military artist, however, and did not see any action during his tour of duty.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

World War II

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Freedom of Speech, 1943

In 1943, during World War II, Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms series, which was completed in seven months and resulted in him losing fifteen pounds. The series was inspired by a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, wherein Roosevelt described and articulated Four Freedoms for universal rights. Rockwell then painted Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship<ref name="Norman Rockwell Museum Detail Page">Template:Cite web</ref> and Freedom from Fear.Template:Sfn

The paintings were published in 1943 by The Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell used the Pennell shipbuilding family from Brunswick, Maine as models for two of the paintings, Freedom from Want and A Thankful Mother, and would combine models from photographs and his own vision to create his idealistic paintings. The United States Department of the Treasury later promoted war bonds by exhibiting the originals in sixteen cities. Rockwell considered Freedom of Speech to be the best of the four.Template:Sfn

File:"Freedom From Want" - NARA - 513539.jpg

Freedom from Want, 1943

That same year, a fire in his studio destroyed numerous original paintings, costumes, and props.<ref name="Caplin">Template:Citation.</ref> Because the period costumes and props were irreplaceable, the fire split his career into two phases, the second phase depicting modern characters and situations. 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 per week deal, knowing that a Capp–Rockwell collaboration would gain strong public interest. The project was ultimately aborted, however, as it turned out that Rockwell, known for his perfectionism as an artist, could not deliver material so quickly as would be required of him for a daily comic strip.<ref name="Caplin" />

Later career

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

In 1959, after his wife Mary died suddenly from a heart attack,Template:Sfn Rockwell took time off from his work to grieve. It was during that break that he and his son Thomas produced Rockwell's 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.Template:Sfn

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Norman Rockwell's studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Rockwell's last painting for the Post was published in 1963, marking the end of a publishing relationship that had included 321 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 1966, Rockwell was invited to Hollywood to paint portraits of the stars of the film Stagecoach, and also found himself appearing as an extra in the film, playing a "mangy old gambler".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name=VF>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

As a tribute on the 75th anniversary of Rockwell's birth, officials of Brown & Bigelow and the Boy Scouts of America asked Rockwell to pose in Beyond the Easel as the illustration for the 1969 Boy Scout calendar.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1969 the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation commissioned Rockwell to paint the Glen Canyon Dam.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

His last commission for the Boy Scouts of America was a calendar illustration titled The Spirit of 1976, which was completed when Rockwell was 82, concluding a partnership which generated 471 images for periodicals, guidebooks, calendars, and promotional materials. His connection to the BSA spanned 64 years, marking the longest professional association of his career. His legacy and style for the BSA has been carried on by Joseph Csatari.

For "vivid and affectionate portraits of our country", Rockwell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, in 1977 by President Gerald Ford. Rockwell's son, Jarvis, accepted the award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Death

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Rockwell's grave in Stockbridge Cemetery

Rockwell died on November 8, 1978, of emphysema at the age of 84 in his Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> First Lady Rosalynn Carter attended Rockwell's funeral.

Personal life

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Rockwell Template:Circa

Rockwell married his first wife, Irene O'Connor, on July 1, 1916.Template:Sfn Irene was Rockwell's model in Mother Tucking Children into Bed, published on the cover of The Literary Digest on January 19, 1921. The couple divorced on January 13, 1930.Template:Sfn

Depressed, Rockwell moved briefly to Alhambra, California, as a guest of his old friend Clyde Forsythe. There, Rockwell painted some of his best-known paintings, including The Doctor and the Doll. While there, he met and married schoolteacher Mary Barstow on April 17, 1930.<ref name="A personal recollection">Template:Cite web</ref> The couple returned to New York shortly after their marriage. They had three sons: Jarvis Waring, Thomas Rhodes, and Peter Barstow.Template:Sfn The family lived at 24 Lord Kitchener Road in the Bonnie Crest neighborhood of New Rochelle, New York.Template:Sfn

Rockwell and his wife were not regular church attendees, although they were members of St. John's Wilmot Church, an Episcopal church near their home, where their sons were baptized.Template:Sfn Rockwell moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939 where his work began to reflect small-town life. He would later be joined by his good friend John Carlton Atherton.<ref name="A personal recollection" />

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, close to where Rockwell set up his studio.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Rockwell also received psychiatric treatment, seeing the analyst Erik Erikson, who was on staff at Riggs. Erikson told biographer Laura Claridge that Rockwell painted his happiness, but did not live it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On August 25, 1959, Mary died unexpectedly of a heart attack.Template:Sfn

Rockwell married his third wife, retired Milton Academy English teacher Mary Leete "Mollie" Punderson (1896–1985), on October 25, 1961.Template:Sfn His Stockbridge studio was located on the second floor of a row of buildings. Directly underneath Rockwell's studio was, for a time in 1966, the Back Room Rest, better known as the famous "Alice's Restaurant". During his time in Stockbridge, chief of police William Obanhein was a frequent model for Rockwell's paintings.<ref>William J. Obanhein; 'Alice's Restaurant' Lawman, 69 Template:Webarchive. The New York Times (September 14, 1994). Retrieved October 29, 2015.</ref>

From 1961 until his death, Rockwell was a member of the Monday Evening Club, a men's literary group based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. At his funeral, five members of the club served as pallbearers, along with Jarvis Rockwell.<ref>"The Club's historic membership roster, part VII: members joining 1942-1961" Template:Webarchive, Monday Evening Club. Retrieved May 1, 2014.</ref>

Legacy

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 still is open today year-round.Template:Sfn The museum's collection includes 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rockwell's work was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2001.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties sold for $15.4 million at a 2006 Sotheby's auction.<ref name="VanityFair"/> A 12-city U.S. tour of Rockwell's works took place in 2008.<ref name=Scouting08 /> In 2008, Rockwell was named the official state artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref> The 2013 sale of Saying Grace for $46 million (including buyer's premium) established a new record price for Rockwell.<ref name="NPR">Template:Cite web</ref> Rockwell's work was exhibited at the Reading Public Museum and the Church History Museum in 2013–2014.

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Cover of October 1920 issue of Popular Science magazine

In "Annie Hall" (1977) Alvy (Woody Allen) teases Annie (Diane Keaton) saying: "What did you do, grow up in a Norman Rockwell painting?".
In 1981, Rockwell's painting Girl at Mirror was used for the cover of Prism's fifth studio album Small Change.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Rockwell is among the figures depicted in Our Nation's 200th Birthday, The Telephone's 100th Birthday (1976) by Stanley Meltzoff for Bell System which Meltzoff based on Rockwell's 1948 painting The Gossips.<ref>"Stanley Meltzoff Archives: The 1976 Bell System Telephone Book Cover" Template:Webarchive JKL Museum of Telephony (December 19, 2015); retrieved March 16, 2021</ref>
In the Steven Spielberg 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).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
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 filmmaker's work space.<ref name="VanityFair" />
Rockwell is a major character in an episode of George Lucas' The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, "Passion for Life", portrayed by Lukas Haas.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Museum director Thomas S. Buechner said that Rockwell's art is important for standing the test of time, "When the last half century is explored by the future, a few paintings will continue to communicate with the same immediacy and veracity they have today."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2005, May Corporation, that previously bought Marshall Field's from Target Corp., was bought by Federated Department Stores. After the sale, Federated discovered that Rockwell's The Clock Mender displayed in the store was a reproduction.<ref name=Aronovich>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rockwell had donated the painting, which depicts a repairman setting the time on one of the Marshall Field and Company Building clocks, and was depicted on the cover of the November 3, 1945 Saturday Evening Post, to the store in 1948.<ref name=Aronovich /> Target had since donated the original to the Chicago History Museum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On an anniversary of Norman Rockwell's birth, on February 3, 2010, Google featured 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The response was so great that day that the Norman Rockwell museum's servers were overwhelmed by the volume of traffic.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
"Dreamland", a track from Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace's 2009 album Burn Burn, was inspired by Rockwell's paintings.<ref name="songfacts">Template:Cite web</ref>
The cover for the Oingo Boingo album Only a Lad is a parody of the Boy Scouts of America 1960 official handbook cover illustrated by Rockwell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Lana Del Rey named her sixth studio album, Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019), after Rockwell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Major works

Children Dancing at a Party (1918)
The Love Song (1926)
The Four Freedoms (1943)
- Freedom of Speech (1943)
- Freedom of Worship (1943)
- Freedom from Want (1943)
- Freedom from Fear (1943)
Rosie the Riveter (1943)
Little Girl Observing Lovers on a Train (1944)
We, Too, Have a Job to Do (1944)
Working on the Statue of Liberty (1946)
The Dugout (1948)
Tough Call (1948)
Saying Grace (1951)
Walking to Church (1953)
Breaking Home Ties (1954)
Marriage License (1955)
The Scoutmaster (1956)
The Rookie (1957)
The Runaway (1958)
Triple Self-Portrait (1960)
Golden Rule (1961)
The Connoisseur (1962)
Growth of a Leader (1964)
The Problem We All Live With (1964)
Murder in Mississippi (1965)
New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967)
Russian Schoolroom (1967)
The Spirit of 1976 (1976)

Film posters and album covers

File:Norman Rockwell and Mike Connors (1966 Stagecoach film still).jpg

Rockwell painting actor Mike Connors's portrait on the set of Stagecoach (1966)

Rockwell provided illustrations for several film posters.

The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)Template:Sfn
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)Template:Sfn
The Song of Bernadette (1943)Template:Sfn
Along Came Jones (1945)Template:Sfn
The Razor's Edge (1946)Template:Sfn
Cinderfella (1960)Template:Sfn
Stagecoach (1966)Template:Sfn

He designed an album cover for The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper (1969).Template:Sfn He was also commissioned by English musician David Bowie to design the cover artwork for his 1975 album Young Americans, but the offer was retracted after Rockwell informed him he would need at least half a year to complete a painting for the album.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Displays

Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Rockwell Collection at the National Museum of American Illustration
Rockwell illustrations for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at the Mark Twain Museum in Hannibal MO.
Norman Rockwell World War II posters, hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries Digital Collections
Norman Rockwell and the Art of Scouting at the National Scouting Museum, Irving, Texas<ref name="National Scouting Museum">Template:Cite web</ref>
Norman Rockwell Exhibit in Arlington, Vermont<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honors

Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, first inductee 1958<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

References

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Sources

External links

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Booknotes interview with Laura Claridge on Norman Rockwell: A Life, December 2, 2001, C-SPAN
Collection of mid-twentieth century advertising featuring Norman Rockwell illustrations Template:Webarchive from the TJS Labs Gallery of Graphic Design
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Template:Internet Archive author
Norman Rockwell Museum website

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