Norman Rockwell

1894 - 1978

Biography(b New York, 3 Feb 1894; d Stockbridge, MA, 8 Nov 1978).
American illustrator and painter. He studied at the Chase School of Fine and Applied Art, the National Academy of Art, and the Art Students League, New York. He also enrolled at the Académie Colarossi in Paris in 1923 during one of his many trips to Europe where he came into contact with the European abstract avant-garde. Although he was a constant admirer of Pablo Picasso and made several attempts to absorb some modernist techniques, he remained a realist artist throughout his career, drawing on the narrative genre style of such 19th-century artists as William Sidney Mount and Winslow Homer.

Rockwell’s main work was magazine illustration, notably for the Saturday Evening Post for whom he did his first cover on 20 May 1916. At this time he was art director for Boy’s Life and was considered a specialist illustrator within the world of magazines that were catering for an emerging youth culture in the USA, for example St Nicholas, Youth’s Companion, and the American Boy. He was also much in demand as the designer of corporate calendars. His method of composition for the original oil paintings that were the basis for the printed colour covers for magazines, or the illustrations for such large-scale publications as the Encyclopedia Britannica, was to make a loose sketch of the idea, then to gather models, costumes, background, and props and make individual drawings of parts or, from c. 1937, photographing everything; he then made a full-scale detailed drawing and colour sketches in preparation for the final painting.

Rockwell undoubtedly had great influence in creating an image of liberal, middle-class, conservative America. One of his best-known images was the cover of 1943 for the Saturday Evening Post of the working woman in wartime, Rosie the Riveter, based on the figure of Isaiah painted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. On leaving the Saturday Evening Post in 1963 to work for Look magazine he adopted subject-matter that reflected the conflict-ridden 1960s: cheerleaders gave way to young blacks trying to enter segregated schools (e.g. The Problem We All Live With, Look, 14 Jan 1964; see exh. cat., pp. 136–7); historical heroes gave way to contemporary figures such as astronauts and idealistic Peace Corps volunteers (e.g. The Peace Corps in Ethiopia, Look, 14 June 1966; see exh. cat., p. 135). His work provides a fascinating window into changes and continuities in American ideology in the 20th century. [Christopher Brookeman. "Rockwell, Norman." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 11, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T072540.]

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