Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was an American artist whose paintings have been adored by many Americans since childhood. Rockwell worked for 50 years with the iconic magazine The Saturday Evening Post - in its day it was the most popular weekly magazine in the United States, a middle-class and family read, featuring stories of ordinary people's lives, an overview of current events, and most importantly, original stories and gorgeous illustrations by artists Joseph Leidecker and Norman Rockwell.
A girl running in the rain with a canvas sheet
Rockwell's illustrations were for all ages, often had humorous overtones, and were especially beloved by many young readers. Even celebrities, such as George Lucas, said that as a child, when the magazine was published, he ran home as fast as he could because he wanted to look at Rockwell's funny and kind pictures. They made a truly magical impression on children, perhaps because they reliably showed the ordinary life of ordinary American boys and girls, young readers saw themselves in the place of these characters, wanted to imitate them. There was no excessive moralizing and boring - children feel it very well, just unobtrusive examples of how to act in certain cases.
Swimming Tips. Cover of The Saturday Evening Post (August 16, 1947).
Also, each picture is a different story, funny, touching, and evoking the best feelings. Rockwell had a rare ability to unobtrusively portray basic concepts of love, loyalty, decency, kindness in a way that would be perceived and understood by children, and that would be of real interest to them.
Tom Sawyer paints a fence
In a future where some young drawing fans have had success, they haven't forgotten the work of the artist they grew up with. George Lucas has set aside half a million dollars for a museum dedicated to Rockwell's life and creative legacy. Steven Spielberg and Lucas organized an exhibition of the artist's drawings. And it is unknown whether they would have been able to become truly famous directors and make cult films if they had not been such ardent fans of Rockwell's work in their childhood. Great things sometimes begin with small things, and personal development - with the right basic concepts and sense of beauty laid down in childhood.
On vacation with the whole family
Norman Rockwell drew ordinary people of all ages with sympathy, warmth, and a considerable share of good humor. And this manner found the widest understanding among ordinary Americans. Not everyone was close and understandable avant-garde art Pollock or Francis Bacon's paintings, but Rockwell's drawings were liked by almost everyone. He had a huge number of fans, but despite the success and universal recognition, Rockwell remained a very modest man. He lived for a long time in provincial American towns, which were said to be a great place to hang himself, and only later traveled almost all over the world.
Triple self-portrait
In spite of sincere nobility, firm convictions, differed a tendency to melancholy, approximately as our remarkable landscape painter Isaac Levitan. Perhaps because of this, and dramatic moments in his drawings he was able to convey with extraordinary accuracy and in the right proportion. Life - it is different, as diverse and creativity Rockwell, although the last word in many of his drawings still remained for the positive and humor.
The waiting room at the maternity hospital
Rockwell was born in New York City. His father worked as a manager, his mother as a housewife. He began to show an aptitude for drawing from the age of seven, and the worldview was greatly influenced by the works of Charles Dickens, which his father instead of bedtime stories read to his son. Gradually he realized that the world is far from ideal, but at the same time sincerely wanted in his drawings to depict a world where there is no place for the homeless, drunks, lies, betrayal, unconcerned poverty and grief, and there are only cheerful children and happy parents. Yes, let it be a varnishing of reality in its purest form, but do we want to see the whole truth of life in children's drawings?
Teacher's Birthday
Norman was lanky and had an awkward build. Unlike his brother, a real handsome athlete, who was the favorite of all the local girls, he was not interested in sports or love affairs, but in drawing. Therefore, at the age of 14, he firmly decided to become an artist and began to study at the New York School of Art. And then his career is developing rapidly and on the rise. At 19, he is already an artist for the Boy Scout magazine "Boy's Life", and at 22 he opened his own art studio with cartoonist Clyde Forsyth. Forsyth worked for America's most popular magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and put in a good word for Rockwell with the bosses of the iconic American Post magazine to draw pictures for its covers. As a result, over the course of 47 years, Rockwell created drawings for over 300 covers of this iconic magazine, which has been called "the mirror of America". Indeed, it's a mirror you want to look into, even if it reflects reality in a somewhat embellished way.
After the Christmas rush. Cover of The Saturday Evening Post (December 27, 1947)
In 1930, Rockwell also worked in Hollywood - he wanted a little distraction and a change of scenery after a difficult separation from his wife Irene O'Connor. There he wrote Harry Cooper as a cowboy for the promotional poster of the movie with his participation, and at the same time in search of subjects for his paintings tried to study the life of the "Dream Factory" from the inside.
Harry Cooper as a Texan
Except that in those artworks, embellishments and unconcerned optimism were few and far between, and they were intended more for adult audiences. Gone from business actors, to whom no one cares, lost from the fallen glory of the sense of reality movie stars, young girls who came in search of fame and fortune in Hollywood and forced to work part-time ancient profession. However, it was in Los Angeles, he married for the second time to a teacher Mary Barstow, who gave him three children. So to divorce and forget after the divorce Rockwell really managed.
Deadline
Rockwell was a very capable artist - he created over 4,000 paintings during his lifetime. He and worked according to his own method. First, he came up with an idea for a painting - this, according to the artist, was the most difficult, then he chose models - most often his friends and acquaintances or family members. Under his guidance they took the necessary poses, and Norman invited photographers who captured them. And then it was a matter of technique - it was necessary to transfer the photo to canvas, which Norman coped with perfectly. But the difficulties were in the details. In order to create the right composition of photos, there were a lot of options for placing models - sometimes up to 100 pieces, so posing for Norman was something like shooting a movie, and he felt himself a director.
The family came home from vacation
Gradually his artworks became more complex and elaborate, and Norman was particularly proud of four paintings from the Second World War, entitled Four Freedoms.
The four freedoms. Freedom from fear
Rockwell lived 84 years and at the end of his life said: "every picture for me is like a new adventure, I go forward without looking back, and I sincerely hope that I have many more interesting things to look forward to.
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