1. Biography

Norman Percevel Rockwell was born February 3, 1894 in New York city. His father was Jarvis Warig Rockwell, manager of the New York office of George Woods, Sons, and Company, a textile firm. His mother was Nancy Hill Rockwell, the daughter of Thomas Hill, an English painter who had emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s. The family was very religious. While living in New York, Rockwell sang with the choir at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and later at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Rockwell was nearsighted and pigeon-toed and therefore couldn’t take part in many sports. This did not, however, affect his popularity, for his talent for drawing entertained his contemporaries. Rockwell disliked the city but loved summers in the country. He found the city dirty, sordid, and ugly, which is probably why city streets so rarely appear in his paintings (Buechner 24).

In 1903 his family moved to Mamaroneck in Westchester County. His interest in art continued to grow and by the age of 14 he had decided to make it his career. He began taking lessons at New York’s Chase School of Fine and Applied Art. Shortly thereafter he dropped out of high school to become a full-time student at the National Academy School. The curriculum was academic in the grand French tradition and it wasn’t long before Rockwell decided it wasn’t for him (Buechner 24).

In 1910 Rockwell enrolled at the more progressive Art Students League, where illustration was taken seriously and taught professionally. His talent flourished and he was encouraged to seek outside assignment. (Sommer 8). Rockwell had received his first commission at the age of 16, when he was asked to design four Christmas cards, and a year later he illustrated his first children’s book. By the time he and his family moved back to New York City in 1912 he was receiving enough commissions to become a full-time illustrator (Sommer 9).

Rockwell began contributing to Boys’ Life in 1912. He became art director of the magazine in 1913, at the age of 19. In 1915 the Rockwell family moved to New Rochelle. Rockwell accompanied them, renting a studio for his work. In 1916 he reached the pinnacle of his profession when his first cover appeared on the nation’s most widely read magazine, the Saturday Evening Post (Buechner 42).

Rockwell soon followed this professional milestone with a personal one – his marriage to Irene O’Connor, a schoolteacher from Potsdam, New York (Sommer 9). In the summer of 1918 Rockwell joined the navy and worked for Afloat and Ashore as well as serving his regular clients, including not only the Post but several other major magazines and such advertisers as Perfection Oil Heaters, Overland Automobiles, Jell-O, and Orange Crush (Sommer 9).

When he returned to New Rochelle, Rockwell was rich and famous. He built a $23,000 studio, he was invited to help choose Miss America, he travelled to Europe, South America, and North Africa, and he drank bootleg whisky during prohibition (Sommer 9). However, the Post’s editor, George Lorimer encouraged Rockwell to continue with what he did best; the picturing of childhood and family life, young love, leave-takings and homecomings, youth and age, and holiday celebrations (Sommer 9). During the twenties, Rockwell grew in both proficiency and popularity. After his divorce from Irene Rockwell at the end of the decade, he entered upon a new phase in his career, a period of extremely rapid development that would, by the end of the 1930s, produce the mature style for which he is best remembered and most admired (Sommer 11).

In 1930 Rockwell met and married Mary Barstow, a young California schoolteacher. Their first child, Jarvis (called Jerry), was born in 1932 in New Rochelle. Their second child, Tommy, was born in 1933 and their third, Peter, in 1936. Rockwell’s Post covers from this period reflect the shift in his point of view on family life, from observer to participant (Sommer 13). In 1939 the Rockwells moved to Arlington in Vermont. The Rockwells were to spend 14 years there very much at home with the sturdy, independent spirit of the Vermont countryside. During the 1930s Rockwell had painted 67 covers for the Post. Towards the end of the decade, new patterns began to appear in his work. There was a greater sense of tranquillity and a more subtle blending of humour and pathos (Sommer 13).

During the World War II years, Rockwell used his art to contribute actively to the war efforts. In 1940 Rockwell presented his poster for a children’s war relief drive to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. By this time many other artists were working in his manner, but none so successfully. In 1942 Rockwell began a series of four paintings of ordinary Americans in scenes that portrayed the ideals for which the nation had gone to war. The series was called the Four Freedoms, and included Freedom of Worship, Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Fear, and Freedom from Want. These were designed primarily as original works and as such they were seen by more than a million people on a 16-city tour on behalf of war bonds: the tour raised more than $130 million (Sommer 15).

After the war Rockwell began a long series of calendars depicting the four seasons. The 1950s were transitional years for America, filled with social changes produced by World War II, the ensuing Cold War, and the impact of new technologies. Rockwell himself was beginning to be troubled — both by growing dissatisfaction with his work and by concern about his wife’s increasingly severe depression. After his wife was successfully treated, Rockwell regained some of his artistic confidence and went on, to produce some of his best work ever. During the 1950s, Rockwell painted 41 covers for the Post (Sommer 17).

In 1959 Mary Rockwell suddenly died of a heart attack. Rockwell’s grief was combined with professional concerns, including the declining circulation of the magazines that he worked for and criticism from those who said that his work was no longer socially or politically relevant. (Sommer 18). In 1961 Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher. His new-found happiness with Molly no doubt helped him to cope with the blow he suffered in 1963, when the Saturday Evening Post ended its 47-year relationship with him (Sommer 18). Because of new editorial policies, Rockwell’s work was deemed out of date. In total Rockwell had done 420 covers for the Post. Now free from his commitments, Rockwell was free to accept offers from others, including the magazine Look and NASA, who wanted him depict the conquest of space (Sommer 19).

Rockwell’s last cover was for the magazine American Artist in the year 1976. That same year he was honoured by the Norman Rockwell parade in his home-town Stockbridge. Norman Rockwell died on November 8, 1978 at his home in Stockbridge at the age of 84.

2. The Art

2.1 The Years 1906-1920

Already at the age of twelve, Rockwell had decided he was going to be an artist, because that’s what he thought he could do best. By the time he was fourteen, in the year 1908, Rockwell was commuting from his home town of Mamaroneck to New York every Saturday, and later also on Wednesdays, for his first formal art training at the Chase School of Fine and Applied Art. After dropping out of high school in the middle of his sophomore year, he switched to the National Academy School as a full-time student (Buechner 24). However, it seems that the curriculum didn’t do a lot for him. Students did laborious charcoal studies from plaster casts of antique sculptures – copies of copies. After they had learned the basics of proportion, anatomy, and rendering they graduated to living models (Buechner 24).

In 1910 Rockwell enrolled at the Art Students League, which was the most liberal and exciting art school of its day (Buechner 24). The school had a long list of famous alumni, but none impressed Rockwell more than Howard Pyle. It’s easy to understand why Rockwell thought of Pyle as his role model; he was, after all, the greatest illustrator of his time. Pyle was also responsible for giving illustration scholarly status through his historical accuracy, and through his portrayal of basic human emotions (Buechner 28). While Pyle’s work showed Rockwell where he wanted to go, it was George Bridgman who gave him the tools for getting there. Bridgman taught his students the construction of the human body: "You can’t paint a house until it’s built", he often used to say to his students (Buechner 28).

The body was studied in such great detail that a student didn’t have to depend on copying outlines but could build any part of the body from the bone up (Buechner 28). Rockwell’s knowledge of complex anatomical construction can be seen in his illustrations, particularly in the hands of the characters (Buechner 28). Arthur Burdett Frost also had a great influence on Rockwell: from the very beginning his careful selection of detail and infusion of quaint humour impressed Rockwell.

The young Rockwell worked very hard. What he learned, he perfected, making each idea his own through the thoroughness of his study and consequent understanding. This thoroughness and attention to detail can be seen throughout his career. Rockwell's fourth great teacher was Thomas Fogarty, who taught the illustration class. His definition of illustration was simple: the author’s word in paint. From this basic approach evolved Rockwell’s fascination with authenticity, characterisation, supporting detail, and facial expression (Buechner 34).

Rockwell developed his pictures in a series of separate phases: first, a loose sketch of an idea; second, the gathering of models, costumes, background, and props; third, an individual drawing of parts or, from about 1937 onwards, photographing everything; fourth a full-scale drawing in great detail; fifth, colour sketches; and finally, putting all the parts together in the final painting (Buechner 39). Of course, the procedure varied from picture to picture, (Buechner 39). but the one constant remained the rigid separation of drawing and painting. He solved as many problems and made as many decisions in black-and-white as he could and then took on the colour and textural possibilities of paint as the second phase (Buechner 42).

During the first ten years of Rockwell’s career several themes and subjects emerged that served Rockwell for more than half a century. These included situations involving small embarrassments, discomforts, and humiliations; growing up and budding love; youth contrasted with age, and old-fashioned patriotism. The characters that appeared at this time and to which he returned often in his life were Santa Claus, the Boy Scouts, circus people, dogs, and bandaged big toes (Buechner 45).

2.2 The Years 1920-1938

While in Paris in 1923 Rockwell had enrolled in Colarossi’s school for modern art. There, his Bridgman-Pyle approach suddenly seemed hopelessly old-fashioned. He tried to do a "modern" cover emphasising abstract colour, but it was rejected by the Post and he quickly returned to what he and the public loved best, telling stories. In a way he became two artists with separate styles. One was traditional, sentimental, and pretty, full of atmosphere and charm – a direct link with the past and extremely well done (Buechner 47).

The other style reflected that which he had learned in Paris: strong silhouettes backed by simple geometric shapes, design instead of atmosphere, humour instead of sentiment. During this period, Rockwell’s subject matter also changed: Although children remained his favourite subject, the perspective changed from that of a boy describing himself to a man looking back on boyhood. The Post covers painted during the 20s introduced some new characters that Rockwell would return to often: bums, sheriffs, musicians, and doctors (Buechner 52).

In the thirties Rockwell began painting from photographs. At first, he found himself too dependent on his photos, but he gradually loosened himself from them. It is almost impossible to tell the difference between his paintings from life and his paintings from photographs (Buechner 75). In 1935 Rockwell received a commission to do eight colour paintings for a deluxe edition of Tom Sawyer and another eight for Huckleberry Finn. The results are remarkable. The paintings are free and spontaneous; each has an immediacy about it as if the viewer were there (Buechner 75).

Rockwell put an incredible amount of work into the illustrations: the clothes worn by the models who posed for the pictures were actually bought off the backs and heads of the citizens of Mark Twain’s hometown Hannibal in Missouri, where he had gone to research the settings and to interview local people (Sommer 12).

During the 1930s Rockwell did 67 covers for the Post. Only ten of these covers had children as the main subject. In general his approach became less sentimental; more sophisticated subjects were introduced: horseback riding, antiquing, the theatre. Sports – football, baseball, hunting, fishing, and croquet – became adult pastimes, and several covers reflect contemporary interests in movie stars, progressive education, rumble seats, and early Americana (Buechner 85).

2.3 The Years 1939-59

In the paintings he did during World War II, Rockwell depicted soldiers and sailors as civilians in uniform – and the war itself as everybody’s fight. He conceived the idea of explaining through portrayals of basic American values and ideals what the war was all about (Buechner 85). The result was the magnificent Four Freedoms.

     

The Four Freedoms portrayed the ideals for which the United States had entered World War II
(Public Domain images, source U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)

Rockwell's involvement can also be seen in the Post covers of that period: twenty-five of the thirty-three covers relate to the war (Buechner 91). In addition to the war, the only new subject of this decade was some April Fool covers. In using photographs and in accepting the world a little more realistically, Rockwell found and mastered a new subject: architectural exteriors. During this time, his interiors and other settings became increasingly detailed.

In 1951 Rockwell painted the picture that the Post’s readers would later vote their favourite of all his works (Sommer 16). The painting, called Saying Grace, depicts a grandmother and her grandson saying grace in a railroad station restaurant. The most noticeable change in his work during the 1950s is the return to the subject of youth – boys, dogs, swimming, girls, adolescence, going to church, to school, to the doctor’s... Of the forty-one Post covers he did during the decade, twenty-two include children – as high a proportion as in the twenties (Buechner 108).

These subjects of youth were based on situations typical of his early work, but many now appeared in new settings with new props – a hypodermic needle instead of a tongue depressor, a veterinarian’s office instead of a patent medicine bottle (Buechner 108). There was also a change in the subject matter: instead of cheerleaders, he painted integration; instead of peace and prosperity, he painted poverty, protest, and the Peace Corps (Buechner 114).

What happened? How did a chronicler of nostalgic America turn into a crusader? Rockwell was a professional. He accepted the assignment, did the work and got paid (Buechner 118). Even if his and the Post’s points of view on the subject coincided, it was still primarily the magazine’s way of seeing things. And as the Post’s and Rockwell’s journey together came to an end, Rockwell began accepting new offers and new points of view.

2.4 The Years 1960-

The 1960s saw a return to all of the styles and subject themes developed over the years; silhouetted groups, full interiors, caricatures and portraits, masses of people, exteriors – and, through it all, the Boy Scouts (Buechner 125). The massing of people became Rockwell’s major device in the 60s; The Golden Rule, The Peace Corps in Ethiopia, How Goes the War on Poverty?, The Right to Know, and Man’s First Step on the Moon all got this treatment (Buechner 125). The subjects he now painted were big, important, and challenging. But Rockwell hadn’t changed; he still met all of his subjects with enthusiasm and imagination; he still liked to paint funny-sad stories and springtime (Buechner 135).

3. Analysis

In this final section I will briefly analyse three of Rockwell’s paintings. I chose these three mostly because they have a subject that I can relate to and are from three different decades, thus portraying also the changes in Rockwell’s style. All of the paintings feature a girl (or girls) and a mirror and depict, for me, the same thing: a girl who wants to look like a woman, but isn’t quite there yet.

   

"Wanting to look like a woman, but not quite there yet" — something every girl can identify with . . .
(L-R) Going Out, The Prom Dress, and Girl at the Mirror
(Source: rockwellprints.com)

The first picture is called Going Out and appeared on the Post cover on October 21, 1933. In the book 102 Favorite Paintings by Norman Rockwell, Christopher Finch writes that the persons in the picture are mother and daughter. I’m not sure this is the case, because the woman seems very young to be the mother of a seven-year-old child. For me the two girls are sisters. The older sister is getting ready to go out and it’s obviously going to be a big night; her hair is immaculately styled and her dress is quite grand. She is a pretty young woman and doesn’t need much make-up. Her profile is accentuated by the darkness of the round mirror behind her head. She sits by her dressing table, checking her hair through a hand mirror. Her little sister is standing behind her, with her toothbrush behind her back and her little dog sitting by her feet.

The girl's back is to the viewer, but one can almost guess what she is thinking: "When will I be old enough to do that?" This picture, as do the other two as well, depicts brilliantly the longing to be older and more grown-up than one actually is, and I think that everyone has felt that longing at some point in their life.

The next picture, The Prom Dress, was published on the cover of the Post in 1949. It shows a young girl, maybe 16 years old, standing in front of a full-length mirror. She is dressed in a shirt and jeans and looks like she has just popped in from helping her parents with the farm work outside. She is holding her new prom dress in front of her, trying to imagine how she will look in it. Her expression is not exactly happy; she looks quite critical of her appearance. But being critical of your appearance is something you do when you are 16.

The girl doesn’t look as if she habitually wears frilly dresses, and the contrast between the girls clothes and the frilly, white prom dress is striking, but it is still quite easy for the viewer to imagine how she will look in it. The room around her is depicted to the minutest detail. It’s obviously the girl’s room: there is a petticoat in the closet, a pink bedspread and you can see a bit of a stuffed toy in the right edge of the picture. On the bed are the shoes she is going to wear on the big night, still in the box. The dress’s box is on a piano stool behind the girl.

I can imagine the girl standing in front of the mirror trying to picture herself in the dress every now and again, when there is no-one else in the house: I know I did this with every new dress I got.

The third picture is called Girl at the Mirror, and was published as the cover of the Post on March 6, 1954. It shows a girl in her nightgown sitting on a small stool in front of a large mirror. She has a magazine with pictures of movie stars on her knees and at her feet are a brush, a comb and a lipstick. By the mirror is a doll, which has been cast aside. The girl is thirteen or fourteen years old and has just recently stopped playing with dolls. She is gazing in the mirror with a thoughtful look on her face, as if pondering what she will look like in a few years' time or, again, wondering when she will look like one of the movie stars in her magazine.

I remember clearly what it was like to be in that awkward in-between age, when playing with dolls wasn’t interesting anymore, but wearing make-up would have been too soon. I think this picture depicts quite clearly the transition from girl to woman, and is one of my favourite Rockwell paintings.

4. Conclusion

Before I started writing this paper I had only briefly heard of Norman Rockwell and didn’t know much about his art or life. But now, after having studied his work I can see why he is said to be America’s favorite artist. He truly was the greatest illustrator of his time. This is proven not only by the fact that Americans can still relate to his work a quarter-century after his death, but also by the fact that even I, a Finnish student, find something in his works to which I can relate. I think that his work has a universal appeal and therefore will be appreciated for a long time to come.

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Works Cited

• Buechner, Thomas S. Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1972.
• Finch, Christopher. 102 Favorite Paintings by Norman Rockwell. New York, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1978.
• Sommer, Robin Langley. Norman Rockwell: A Classic Treasury. London: Grange Books, 1997.

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Last Updated 30 January 2004