| Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) | ||
| Saturday Evening Post | While many would assume that Norman Percevel
Rockwell grew up in the Midwest, he was actually born and reared in New York City.
His father, manager of the New York office of a textile business, would read Dickens aloud
after dinner. His mother, Nancy Hill, was the daughter of an English painter whose
hopes of operating a portrait studio gave way to painting animals of all kinds.
Since Nancy's mother's family descended from Sir Norman Percevel, she assigned this name
to her first son. This was a very religious family; Norman was a choirboy.
Being small-statured and wearing glasses and corrective shoes, he could not participate in
athletics and other activities. So he entertained his friends with his art. Rockwell started taking lessons at the Chase School of Fine and Applied Art when he was 14. He dropped out of school when he was a sophomore and enrolled in the National Academy school. He later moved to the Art Students League. He took a variety of jobs to pay his expenses. These ranged from class monitor, mail carrier and waiter to carrying the paints of Ethel Barrymore. He was an extra for the Metropolitan Opera and met Enrico Caruso and other performers. His first commission was for four Christmas cards when he was 16. He illustrated his first book the next year. By age 18 he had his own studio on the Upper West Side. The following year he became art director for Boys Life and produced 100 illustrations for the Boy Scouts Hike Book. When he was 22 a cartoonist named Clyde Forsythe urged him to submit his work (two paintings and a sketch) to Saturday Evening Post. The magazine bought both paintings and asked him to complete the sketch. They also decided to commission three more covers. Soon after this he married Irene O'Conner. When World War I started, Rockwell wanted to enlist. He was eight pounds underweight, but he was able to ingest enough bananas, doughnuts and warm water to pass the physical. Because of his fame he was assigned to a Charleston Navy yard instead of to Europe as he had hoped. He had plenty of time to continue his work with Post, Collier's, Life, the Literary Digest, Popular Science and other publications as well as produce advertisements for Overland automobiles, Jell-O and Orange Crush. Following the war he found a bootlegger, built a $23,000 studio, helped select Miss America, traveled to Europe, South American and Africa, and was divorced by his wife. Rockwell was impressed by modern art when he visited Paris in 1923. The editors of Post were not equally impressed by his proposed change in style. He began to concentrate of fewer clients, including Post, Encyclopedia Britannica and Edison Mazda. A 1930 disagreement with the art editor of Good Housekeeping about Rockwell illustrating the life of Christ resulted in the artist leaving for Clyde Forsythe's home in Los Angeles. There he met Mary Barstow, his second wife. The early 1930s were not his most successful years. In the latter part of that decade, though, several occurrences influenced beneficial changes. He started using a camera, which resulted in illustrations which were more relaxed. His studio was destroyed by fire, forcing him to seek new ideas instead of relying on old "standby" props. Saturday Evening Post changed the format of its cover. World War II introduced new subject matter. His GIs, including Willie Gillis, provided humorous relief from the tragedy of the war. His best-known series from this time was the Four Freedoms from F.D. Roosevelt words which were included in the Atlantic Chapter. These are Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear. Mary Rockwell died in 1959. He married Molly Punderson in 1961. In 1963 he ended his 47-year association with Post. He then focused on illustrations for special projects, including the Peace Corps and the space program.
Finch, C. (1976), Reader's Digest Norman Rockwell's America (New York: Harry N. Abrams). see also: Buechner, T. (1972), Norman Rockwell A Sixty Year Retrospective (New York: Harry N. Abrams). |
Like
a rock he painted well for the post.