Rockwell Norman (1894-1978) is an American illustrator and artist, popular in his homeland, in the United States of America. For almost five decades, it has been a mirror of American culture.
Childhood
Rockwell Norman was born in New York. His ancestors moved to America in search of a better life from Somerset County in Britain and were one of the first immigrants in Windsor (Connecticut).
Parents transferred a capable boy from high school to art when he was fourteen. At the age of 15, fame came to him - he drew postcards for Christmas. A variety of topics: preparing for Christmas in the kitchen, family hugs at a meeting, depicting happy prosperous people and children - brought the teenager considerable popularity.
Next, Rockwell Norman studied at the National Academy of Design and the League of Art Students. At age 18, he already illustrated The Stories of Mother Nature. After that, he was invited to make sketches from the life of boys. He successfully coped and at age 19 became the art editor of the magazine "Boys' Life", which was intended for the Boy Scouts of America. So, drawing covers for magazines, he spent three years.
Independent work
At twenty-one, Rockwell Norman set up his own studio. Orders were not long in coming. For the weekly Saturday Night Magazine, he created covers for 50 years, believing that he more accurately than any other publication reflects the life of Americans. In New York, the artist married, but the marriage was short-lived. Sorrowed and depressed, he leaves for a friend in California, where he meets Mary Barstow and marries her. A young couple returns to the suburbs of New York - New Rochelle. They have three children. This 30-40 years - the time of Rockwell's most fruitful work. In 1939, the family moved to Arlington. There, in his works, the theme of the life of a small town will appear.
This could be, for example, an office where both an elderly man and a young woman work for typewriters. Around them life is in full swing, the porter enters the room with the box, someone rearranges the tables, but the couple behind the cars work enthusiastically.
World War II and later
I really wanted the artist to be drafted into the army and protect the world from Nazism. But the first time they didn’t take him - he turned out to be too thin. I had to go on a diet that consisted of donuts and bananas. This only helped in part. He was called, but not sent to the front line. In 1943, Norman was inspired by Roosevelt's speech, in which the president expressed 4 principles of universal rights: freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the country from fear. These topics are deeply addressed as a citizen and human artist named Norman Rockwell. Pictures were created quickly. The artist considered the work “Freedom of Speech” to be the best.
The canvas depicts a simple ordinary American who stands on the podium, and next to him is located and, importantly, his wealthy audience, listening to his clothes, is listening. Freedom from Need depicts an average American family at a table in a bright, clean, tidy room. The table is perfectly served, and there are already fruits and dessert on it, and the hostess is looking for a place where to put a large oval dish with a turkey. In the same year, a fire broke out in his workshop, which destroyed both paintings and historical props. Therefore, the fire divided his work into two parts. Now the artist works only with modern material, where only characters and situations that were consonant with time were presented. In 1959, his wife suddenly died of a heart attack. Grief suspended his work.
Further life and work
In 1961, Rockwell married for the third time. By this time he and his family live in the town of Stockbridge. Rockwell was a prolific artist. During his life he wrote more than four thousand works. This picture, and calendars, and covers for magazines, and illustrations for fiction, and advertising for Coca-Cola, and movie posters, and portraits, and much more.
An interesting generalized portrait of students, made graphically. Good smart faces of girls and boys immediately cause sympathy for the younger generation.
The portrait of President Nixon shows the statesman not in a ceremonial setting and not in family life, but against an indefinite brownish background, which, however, does not create gloom. The viewer is open to all people who listen to every request addressed to him.
The painting "Matthew Brady photographs Lincoln" was created in 1975, when the artist was already approaching the completion of his work. Unfortunately, this historical topic failed. The image is too much like a holiday card.
In the last years of his life, he raised such serious topics as racism. The painting “The Problem We All Live With” examines the issue of uniting white and black children in one school. Guards lead the black girl to the school, and the walls are covered with racist graffiti.
Norman Rockwell is an artist whose work by art critics is perceived ambiguously. Most are inclined to think that it is too “sweet” and sentimental and idealizes American life.
Conclusion
In 1977, Rockwell was awarded the Liberty Medal. And in 1978, the artist died at the age of 84. Life was spent in work and ordinary household chores, but Norman Rockwell, a biography, showed this, did not experience it, he was very successful financially.