Norman Perceval Rockwell is a New York City native born 1894. He has always loved art, despite his mother’s dislike for it. His mother, father and brother Jarvis were all part of his family. Rockwell was an extremely thin child growing up with thick glasses. He envied Jarvis, the other boys and their grace because he was scrawny. Rockwell focused on his art after spending a whole month exercising without results.
He was 18 when he started painting and retired two years after. Around 4,000 drawings, paintings, and magazine covers were completed by the artist. In the year 2000, at only 15 years of age, he left school to enroll in New York School. In the following year, he was paid for four paintings of Christmas cards. In 1916 he moved from Boston to Rachelle and sold his very first Saturday Evening Post front cover, Boy with Baby Carriage. Rockwell was turned down for enlistment because of his thinness. He weighed only 81 lbs. Rockwell later became a military illustrator. In later years, Rockwell called his lack in education “a mark of honor”, because he achieved so much.
Norman Rockwell paints with humor and happiness to make his audience happy. His paintings are almost photographic and have themes such as patriotism and holidays. They also include family, courtship, diligence and other topics. He claims to have painted “life the way I’d like it to be”. The artist’s work is always based on models. In his paintings, he displayed the distinct ways that people dressed, acted, and looked. He initially thought that using photographs to create paintings was plagiarism. However, after noticing that his paintings all had the same perspective, he changed his opinion. While he may have used a great deal of pencil and charcoal, I believe the most important medium that he employed was oil on a canvas.
Norman Rockwell, a US cover artist who was popular in 1923. Evening Post Magazine, which he dominated for more than 40 years, gave him his largest audience in art history. During WWII, his Four Freedoms paintings helped to sell over 132 million dollars of war bonds. These include Freedom of Worships, Freedom of Speech and Freedom from Want. There were also other famous artists besides Rockwell. Frank Leyendecker and Howard Chandler Christy were just a few. A fire in 1943 destroyed his Arlington Studio, along with many paintings, historical costumes, and props. He never let the fire stop him.
Norman Rockwell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. Even today, his works are highly regarded. In galleries like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Corcoran Gallery, and Norman Rockwell Museum, they are displayed. The work of Norman Rockwell is also highly regarded in other areas. Rockwell has worked with many clients, including Coca-Cola and Hallmark. Ford, the boy-scouts and Maxwell House Coffee are also among them. Jim Dine Joe Zucker Eileen Agar and others are artists who are still using his style today.
Norman Rockwell’s art has been a fascination of mine for a while now. The Problem we All Live With (1964) is my favourite piece of Norman Rockwell’s. The picture was shown to my class by my English teacher last year. However, I did not pay much attention until recently. I find it very clever the way he arranged everything. Ruby Bridges wore pigtails and was eight years old. Four federal marshals escorted her to school in New Orleans, two ahead of Ruby, and two after. The US marshals were painted in similar colors to the wall, so your eyes would be drawn to Ruby. The marshals are only visible on the bodies of the painting, which makes Ruby the focus. The men shield her from the yells or taunts that are coming from a group of angry people who have not been seen. The mob is shown by the tomato thrown in the background against the wall. You can see the Ku Klux Klan in the upper left corner and the Ku Klux Klan written in large letters on the wall.
Norman Rockwell’s paintings are incredibly realistic. I don’t like abstract art, so I appreciate how he makes them look. His humor is also a great addition to his work. I think the amount of work he’s put into his artwork to reach where he is has inspired a lot of young artists. I am certainly very inspired by him.
