Norman Rockwell’s America: A Visual Documentary

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Norman Rockwell’sAmerica: A Visual

Documentary

By Abby Cronin

Best known for his iconic illustrationsof the everyday lives of 20th centuryMiddle Americans, Norman

Rockwell’s career spanned nearly seventyyears and has left us with a legacy of over4,000 original works. He was born in NewYork City in 1894, the son of a textile-firmmanufacturer. The well-to-do family movedto suburban Westchester Country whereNorman grew up. His early passion fordrawing led him to study art at the Chase ArtSchool and the Art Students League in NewYork before setting up his first studio in NewRochelle, New York in 1915. He gained hisfirst commission to illustrate Christmas cardsat the tender age of 16 and by 1912 evenmore commissions came his way. He didthem for children’s books and in 1913became art editor for Boys’ Life, published bythe Boy Scouts of America. But Rockwellknew that the cover of The Saturday EveningPost was the greatest window in America foran illustrator: “If you did a cover for the Postyou had arrived.” The Post was the mostbeloved magazine in America during the1920’s and 30’s and its circulation peaked at6 million in 1960. It was pushed through

letterboxes or tossed on the front porches ofmillions of households across the countryevery week. Rockwell’s big break came in1916 when G H Lorimer, the Post’s editor,commissioned him, a mere 22 year old, topaint a cover. ‘Boy With Baby Carriage’(pictured), a comic narrative, published onMay 16, 1916. Thus began Rockwell’s forty-seven year association with the Post and hisrecognition as a talented artist.

Rockwell’s subject matter highlighted andpunctuated mainstream cultural and socialmores as they changed throughout 20thcentury America. Familiar situations arecaptured in his portrayal of tenseconversations at a breakfast table, bridgegames and barbershop quartets (pictured:Breakfast Table-Political Argument, 1948 &Barbershop Quartet, 1936). He exploredthemes such as small embarrassments,discomforts, humiliations, gossipingneighbours, youth and ageing, growing upand much-loved domestic pets. Symbols ofAmerican culture were reinforced byRockwell’s imagery. Timeless themes such asold-fashioned patriotism, the Boy Scouts,public holidays and portraits of U.S.Presidents suited The Post’s vision of aunifying Americanism. Rockwell aided theWar effort in the 1940s with his well knownpaintings of Roosevelt’s Four Freedomswhich toured the country and raised well overa million dollars in sales of war bonds. Inaddition to Rockwell’s 322 Saturday EveningPost covers, he completed illustrations formore than 40 books, several covers for Lookand other magazines, Boy Scout calendars,advertise-ments, postage stamps, murals and

greeting cards. And that’s not counting whatwent up in flames when a fire destroyednumerous works in his Arlington, Vermontstudio in 1943.

Despite his popularity with the widerpublic, Rockwell’s work was not wellregarded by the art establishment during hislifetime. Critics felt his illustrations were toonostalgic, overly-affectionate and toopatriotic. While his storytelling movedmillions who understood and identified withthe subject matter, his style of portrayingstories through narrative and figurativeillustration was felt by intellectuals to besimplistic and innocent. Did such a‘Rockwellian’ small-town world really exist?Was Rockwell’s view merely the ‘AmericanDream’ – pictures of a naïve world? Some arthistorians viewed his work as excessivelysentimental and kitsch. They even questionedhis artistic techniques and methods. Was itlegitimate to use photography to pose and

Arts

And

Anti

ques

Boy With Baby Carriage, 1916 SEP

Barbershop Quarter, 1936, SEP

Breakfast Table-Political Argument, 1948

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record events, which Rockwell routinely did,before transferring them to canvas?Unashamedly, Rockwell explained that hewas “The kid with the camera eye”.

From the 1930s he engaged photographersto record carefully conceived scenes that heimagined in his mind’s eye. A recentpublication, Norman Rockwell: Behind theCamera, by Ron Schick, 2009, exploresRockwell’s photographic techniques. And inhis book, How I Make a Picture, 1949,Rockwell referred to his works as ‘pictures’.David Kamp, writing in Vanity Fair (11.2009)explains the process Rockwell used.

First came the brainstorming and a rough pencilsketch, then casting of the models and the hiring ofcostumes and props…coaxing the right poses out ofthe models…..the composition of a fully detailedcharcoal sketch…then a painted colorsketch….then, and only then, the final painting.

During the past twenty years his work hasbeen studied closely and reassessed. TodayRockwell is regarded as an accomplishedpainter-illustrator who spent his whole lifesketching, drawing and observing the dailylives and habits of people he knew in the NewEngland communities where he lived. Finallyappreciated, Rockwell has earned a place inthe history of Western art and ‘Rockwellian’is no longer a term of abuse. As pictures theymay be familiar – tapping into our personalmemories and experiences, but they also serveas reminders of Rockwell’s ability to observeand record views of tolerance in fraught socialsituations. His apolitical stance graduallyshifted to confront and record a changingAmerican social and political landscape. NewDeal reforms, World War II, the rise ofnational identity, civil-rights movement andUnited Nations became core themes. In post-war America, Rockwell brought to lifeinformative and penetrating views of acutepolitical problems endemic in Americansociety, such as The Problem We All Live With,

1964 (pictured). This remarkable imageserved as a warning sign-post. He is telling uswe must not allow such treatment of ourfellow citizens.

There is no question that Rockwellunderstood and was heavily influenced by theOld Masters. His command of composition,design, perspective and use of lightdemonstrate a sophisticated grasp of artisticskills. This is particularly evident in hispictorial autobiography, Triple Self-Portrait,1960 (pictured). We can actually seeing threeself-portraits. He is working with multipleimages, each with a different attitude. Hisimage on the easel shows an outgoing,friendly and confident face; the figure on thestool is somewhat awkward and uncertain,while the serious face in the mirror has hiseyes obscured by light on his glasses. Four OldMaster self-portraits by Rembrandt, vanGogh, Dürer and Picasso are attached to thetop right corner of his canvas and sketches ofRockwell’s face are tacked to the top left. Acaricature of the American eagle is perched onthe mirror, a Paris fireman’s helmet sits at thetop of the canvas and smoke is billowing fromthe trash can. Rockwell is playing a game, ineffect asking the viewer to construct his self-portrait from the images. Read carefully, thisis truly an autobiographical self-portrait.

Rockwell’s current status has soared tonew heights – he is back in vogue. NewYorker art critic, Peter Schjeldhal, seesNorman Rockwell as “… a visual storytellerof genius…a story-maker, a bard. He didn’tillustrate Middle America. He inventedMiddle America.” (The New Yorker,22.11.1999) I agree, and in my view,

Norman Rockwell was a New England scribewith brushes. He recorded a nearly-vanishedidealised America. His illustrations and artare no longer viewed as having portrayedAmerican culture in a populist manner.Instead, they convey an intrinsic optimism.Fortunately for us, Rockwell himselfestablished a trust in 1973, placing his worksin the custody of the Norman RockwellMuseum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts,where he lived with his family from 1953until his death in 1978. The museum is opento the public and attracts many visitors.More recently major retrospectiveexhibitions of his work have travelled acrossthe United States including one at theGuggenheim Museum in New York City in2001. And major Hollywood filmmakers,Stephen Speilberg and George Lucas haveloaned their personal collections ofRockwell’s art to the Smithsonian AmericanArt Museum where the exhibition, ‘TellingStories: Norman Rockwell from the Collectionsof George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’, openedon 4th July 2010 through to January 2nd

2011. Of even more significance is themuseum dedicated to the work of Americanillustrators, the National Museum ofAmerican Illustration (NMAI) whichopened in Newport, Rhode Island in July2000. It is the creation of Judy GoffmanCutler and Laurence Cutler, life-long artcollectors. The museum’s rich archive ofmajor illustrators includes an importantcollection of Rockwell’s work. The Cutlersare bringing a selection of NormanRockwell’s art, including 322 vintageSaturday Evening Post covers together withillustrations for advertisements, magazinesand books, across the Atlantic for the firsttime. Visitors to the Dulwich Picture Gallerywill be able to enjoy the exhibition ofNorman Rockwell’s America, when it is opento the public on 15th December through to27th March 2011.

All the images shown come from the NationalMuseum of American Illustration (© 2010Images by The National Museum of AmericanIllustration, Newport, RI, USA, and theAmerica Illustrators Gallery, NYC. © 2010Saturday Evening Post covers by SEPS, CurtisPublishing)

Contact: Abby Croninartsjournalist@abbycronini.co.ukWebsite: www.abbycronin.co.uk

Triple Self-Portrait, 1960, SEP

The Problem We All Live With, 1964, Look Magazine Study