Norman Rockwell

Norman Percevel Rockwell (1894-1978) was an American illustrator and painter who works held mass popular appeal during his lifetime and have now reached iconic status. Rockwell is best known for his cover illustrations on The Saturday Evening Post, which he created for over four decades, producing 322 cover paintings. His portrayal of small-town American life is a glimpse into the ideals of a past century and many of his Christmas illustrations are popular today for the sentimental response they evoke.

Rockwell was born in 1894 in New York City and followed his passion for art early on in life. He began attending the Chase Art School when he was 14 years old, and went on to attend the National Academy of Design and the Arts Student League. Rockwell became the art editor for the Boy Scouts of America publication, Boys’ Life, in 1913, when he was only 19 years old. Rockwell enlisted in WWI, but never saw any action as he became a military artist. During WWII, Rockwell was inspired to paint his Four Freedoms series by a Franklin D. Roosevelt speech. Universal rights were broken down in the speech into four main principles: Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want and Freedom to Worship. The United States government later used these paintings to promote war bonds, touring the originals through 16 cities.

Rockwell was extremely prolific, producing over 4000 original artworks in his lifetime. Much of his work was dismissed by critics as being overly sweet and kitsch, which has led to the adjective `Rockwellesque’ being used to describe images that are overly sentimental or idealistic. Rockwell’s talent remains undisputable. Later in his life he turned to more serious subject matter, such as racism and poverty, in his 10 year association with Look magazine. Rockwell’s images have been parodied and utilized in many novels and films of the past decades, as his images had evoked such poignancy with the American public and are almost instantly recognizable.

"Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed."

— Norman Rockwell