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.
