Besides illustration, Rockwell loved to paint kids. He created a wonderful mythical land where children, their desires, hopes, lives, were the protagonists. This line of art was his answer to the drama of war, and to the violence, he experienced in New York in childhood. He believed that America had to look at the new generation, to build a country which can preserve its innocence and grow proper adults. He also loved to travel, and in the s s he went five times to Europe, then to South America and Africa.
Influenced by European art, he experimented with contemporary styles, but the director of the Post urged him to keep to his manner. In , Rockwell then went to California, where he became friends with Walt Disney. In Rockwell's family moved to Arlington, Vermont. He fell in love with the landscape, the simple way of life. In this domestic and quiet environment, Rockwell began the new artistic line that will characterize his career and make him so loved by the American people.
He created dozens of sketches, paintings, illustrations of the life of the small American province, using more than people of the town as models. Other illustrators joined Rockwell there, creating a sort of artistic community.
Rockwell's art spread very quickly, from magazines covers to calendars, to advertisements. When the Second World War exploded, Rockwell created a series of covers featuring the recruit Willie Gillis, a fictional character. There are more than ten images, published from to , which describe the life of the typical American boy, from the first day in uniform to the happy return home from the war.
Rockwell chose not to paint combat images, focusing more on the soldier's ideal than on the harshness of war. At the same time, Norman Rockwell painted a series of paintings called The Four Freedoms , inspired by the famous speech on the four fundamental freedoms held at the congress by President Franklin D.
This group of works was published in on The Saturday Evening Post and reproduced in thousands of posters. Later it was exhibited in sixteen American cities by the Treasury Department to promote the collection of war funds.
The artist was 43 years old, too old to serve in the army, and was comforted by the success of this work of art: it was his way of helping his country win the war, not being able to fight on the field as a soldier. In Rockwell ended the collaboration with the Post to undertake new work experience with the magazine Look. Over the ten years, he created illustrations representing his deepest interest in civil rights, the fight against poverty, the Vietnam war, and the conquest of space.
He died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in , due to complications of pulmonary emphysema. The first lady Rosalynn Carter attended his funeral. Rockwell painted the American Dreams better than any other American artist in history. His images are currently part of the American cultural heritage, though he was belittled by contemporary art critics who considered him more an illustrator than a real artist.
Norman Percevel Rockwell February 3, — November 8, was a 20th-century American author, painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades. He also is noted for his year relationship with the Boy Scouts of America BSA , during which he produced covers for their publication Boys' Life, calendars, and other illustrations.
Norman Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing more than 4, original works in his lifetime. As a true narrator, Norman Rockwell gave a crucial importance to every detail of the script he sought to represent on his canvas. Indeed, as an illustrator, he had to ensure that the images best reflected the texts. This meant a long technical process. To be as close as possible to reality, the artist had models pose in his studio, not knowing how to paint from his imagination alone.
Later, he used photography so that each element object, landscape, character, or facial expression would be represented as realistically as possible. He used all this material to make a very precise charcoal drawing. After transferring it to the paper by drawing the outlines, the photographs themselves were projected. He then replaced the first sketched figures with the outline of the photographic elements.
Once this first composition was completed, he would start again from the beginning, drawing in more detail, perfecting the tones and lighting. To transfer the final sketch to the canvas, Rockwell either used tracing paper or projected his photograph.
For the pose of the painting, he would refer to a study, often done at the beginning of the creative process, in color and the size of the intended reproduction, but much less precise.
Extremely demanding, he could spend several long days on a single illustration, reworking the same section of a composition several times. The finished work was sometimes even discarded. In addition, he regularly asked his entourage to criticize his work, especially to ensure the clarity of his narrative. His style, more precise than one of the naturalist painters, foreshadowed photorealism. This movement consists of reproducing a photograph in the most realistic way possible.
Indeed, after a first refusal because of his small weight, he was finally recruited. Serving the army as a military artist, he was responsible for his base newspaper.
In the early s, he returned to the service of his nation, pencils, and brushes in hand! Aware of the power of the press over the population, he recorded in his covers for the Saturday Evening Post the life of American society during the Second World War. However, they still show optimism and hedonism. Indeed, Rockwell wished, through his images, to maintain the morale of the population and to encourage it to take part in the war effort, in particular by buying war bonds or enlisting in the army.
His character Willie Gillis, who was particularly popular, contributed greatly to this. He was a typical young American soldier with whom young boys could easily identify. Harmless and candid, but highly willing and motivated, he is never portrayed in combat or in danger. However, beyond his activity as a press illustrator, Norman Rockwell worked directly with the State.
In , at the request of the U. Army Ordnance Corps, he produced a poster depicting a gunner in need of ammunition. Intended to be distributed to ammunition factories, it was intended to encourage production. In , President Franklin Roosevelt gave a famous speech to Congress.
He set out his vision of the post-war world based on four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and freedom from want and fear. Wishing to become more involved in the war effort and inspired by the speech, Rockwell wanted to illustrate these four freedoms in order to make them understandable to everyone.
He proposed his idea for posters to the U. Army Ordnance Corps. However, in the absence of sufficient resources, the U.
Army declined the offer. According to some, the American administration actually wanted to use well-known artists to fuel its propaganda rather than an illustrator.
Anyway, Rockwell is not ready to give up his project and he decides to submit it to the editor of the Saturday Evening Post. In , Rockwell was named the official state artist of Massachusetts. I think Rockwell is the stand-out in an age of great illustrators, because he never settled for a formula.
Since then, buyers have been attracted by fresh scholarship, particularly surrounding the blockbuster exhibition Telling Stories at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D. Norman Rockwell is celebrated as a champion of small-town America But his real interest lay elsewhere — in the private moments we all share but often take for granted.
Rockwell also had a grounding in the history of European art Look closely at many of his works and you will find allusions to the Masters. Rockwell was sidelined by critics during the heights of Modernism If Rockwell felt least understood during the Abstract Expressionist movement, he had a sense of humour about it, creating paintings such as The Connoisseur — a work that features an uncannily accurate take on a Jackson Pollock drip painting.
Rockwell painted portraits of five presidents Dwight D. Rockwell died at his home in Rockwell passed away at the age Related sale Follow. You may also like Related content. The Wyeth dynasty of painters The name Wyeth does not reference a single artist, but rather three generations of realist painters.
Ansel Adams: 10 things to know A guide to the photographer who found glory in the American West — illustrated with works offered online until 8 April.
0コメント