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Norman Rockwell (February 3, 1894 –
November_8, 1978) was an early 20th century United
States|American painters|painter.  His works enjoy
a broad popular appeal in the United States where
Rockwell is most famous for a series of covers for
The Saturday Evening Post, notably those painted
during the 1940s and 1950s, especially the Four
Freedoms series and  Rosie the Riveter.

==Biography==

Born in New York City, he transferred from high
school at the age of 16 to the Chase Art School. 
He then went on to the National Academy of Design,
and finally, to the Art Students League, where he
was taught by Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. 
Rockwell's early works were done for St. Nicholas
Magazine, the Boy Scouts of America publication
Boy's Life, and other juvenile publications.  

As a student, Rockwell was given smaller, less
important jobs, but his major breakthrough came in
1912 with his first book illustration for C.H.
Claudy's Tell Me Why: Stories about Mother Nature.

During World War I|the First World War, he tried
to enlist into the United States Navy|U.S. Navy
but was refused entry because, being 6 feet (1.83
m) tall and 140 pounds (64 kg), he was eight
pounds underweight.  To compensate, he spent one
night gorging himself on bananas, liquids and
donuts, and was enlisted the next day.  However,
he was given the role of a military artist, and
did not see any action during his tour of duty.

Rockwell moved to New Rochelle, New York at age 21
and shared a studio with the cartoonist Clyde
Forsythe, who worked for The Saturday Evening
Post.  With Forsythe's help, he submitted his
first successful cover painting to the Post in
1916, Boy with Baby Carriage published on May 20. 
Rockwell married Irene O'Connor, that same year;
however, the couple divorced in 1930.  He quickly
remarried schoolteacher Mary Barstow, with whom he
had three children – Jarvis, Thomas and
Peter. In 1939, the Rockwell family moved to
Arlington, Vermont|Arlington, Vermont, which
seemed to inspire him to painting scenes of
everyday, small town American life.

In 1943 during World War II|the Second World War,
Rockwell completed the Four Freedoms series which
was completed in seven months and resulted in him
losing 15 pounds.  The paintings were based on a
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefou
rfreedoms.htm speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who
declared that there were four principles for
universal rights: 
Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom to
Worship, and Freedom from Fear.  The paintings
were published in 1943 by The Saturday Evening
Post.  The United States Department of the
Treasury|U.S. Treasury Department later promoted
war bonds by touring the originals to 16 cities.  


That same year a fire in his studio destroyed
numerous original paintings, costumes, and props. 
 Later, in 1953, his wife Mary died unexpectedly,
which resulted in Rockwell taking time off to
grieve.  It was during this break that he and his
son Thomas produced his autobiography, My
Adventures as an Illustrator, which was published
in 1960. The Saturday Evening Post printed
excerpts from this book in eight consecutive
issues, the first issue containing Rockwell's
famous Triple Self Portrait.  

Rockwell married his third wife, retired
schoolteacher Molly Punderson, in 1961.  His last
painting for the Post was published in 1963,
marking the end of a publishing relationship that
included 321 cover paintings.  He spent the next
10 years painting for Look Magazine, where his
work depicted his interests in civil rights,
poverty and space exploration.

During his long career, he was commissioned to
paint the portraits for Presidents Dwight D.
Eisenhower|Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy|Kennedy,
and Lyndon Johnson|Johnson, as well as those of
other world figures, including Gamal Abdel Nasser
and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Norman's ability to "get the point across" in one
picture, and his flair for painstaking detail made
him a favorite of the advertising industry. He was
also commissioned to illustrate over 40 books
including the ever popular Adventures of Tom
Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His annual
contributions for the Boy Scout calendars (1925 -
1976), was only slightly overshadowed by his most
popular of calendar works - the "Four Seasons"
illustrations for Brown & Bigelow were published
for 17 years beginning in 1947 and reproduced in
various styles and sizes since 1964. Illustrations
for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly
movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing
cards, and murals (including "Yankee Doodle
Dandy",which was completed in 1936 for the Nassau
Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out
Rockwell's oeuvre as an illustrator. In his later
years, Rockwell began receiving more attention as
a painter when he chose more serious subjects such
as the series on racism for Look. 

A custodianship of 574 of his original paintings
and drawings was established with Rockwell's help
near his home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and
the museum is still open today between May and
October every year.  Rockwell received in 1977 the
Presidential Medal of Freedom for "vivid and
affectionate portraits of our country", the United
States of America's highest civilian honor.

Norman Rockwell passed away at age 84.

== Critique of his work ==

Rockwell was very prolific, and produced over 2000
original works, most of which have been either
destroyed by fire or are in permanent collections.
 Original magazines in mint condition that contain
his work are extremely rare and can command
thousands of dollars today.  

Many of his works appear to the modern artistic
eye as overly sweet, especially the Saturday
Evening Post covers, and tend toward idealistic
portrayals of American life.  Consequently,
Rockwell is dismissed as a "serious painter" by
some contemporary artists, who often regard his
work as bourgeois and kitsch.  He is called an
illustrator instead of an artist by some critics,
a designation he did not mind, as it was what he
called himself.  Yet, Rockwell sometimes produced
images considered powerful and moving to anyone's
eye.  One example is The Problem We All Live With,
which dealt with the issue of school integration. 
The painting depicts a young African American girl
walking to school, flanked by Caucasian|white
United States Marshals Service|federal marshals,
walking past a wall defaced by racism|racist
graffiti.  It is probably not an image that could
have appeared on a magazine cover earlier in
Rockwell's career, but ranks among his best-known
works today.

Norman Rockwell's ability to relate America's old
values to the events of a rapidly changing world
made him a special person, both hero and friend,
to millions of his compatriots.

==Major Works==
* No Swimming (1921) 
* The Four Freedoms (1943)
http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/powers_of_per
suasion/four_freedoms/four_freedoms.html
* Rosie the Riveter (1943)
http://www.rosietheriveter.org/painting.htm
* Going and Coming (1947)
* Bottom of the Sixth (1949)
http://www.globalgallery.com/enlarge/003-13431/
* Girl at Mirror (1954)
* The Marriage License (1955)
* Triple Self-Portrait (1960)
http://www.globalgallery.com/enlarge/003-13430/
* Golden Rule (1961)
* The Problem We All Live With (1964)
http://www.lewisbond.com/rckwellpgs/problem.html
* New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967)

==Quotes==
* "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.  My
fundamental purpose is to interpret the typical
American. I am a story teller ."

==External links==
* http://www.nrm.org/ The Norman Rockwell Museum
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
*
http://www.illustration-house.com/bios/rockwell_bi
o.html Norman Rockwell Biography on the
Illustration House website.
* http://www.antiquetalk.com/column274.htm Norman
Rockwell - Biography on the Antique Talk website.
*
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/p/b/pbb112/norma
nrockwell.html Biography of Norman Rockwell