Norman Rockwell Art

About Norman Rockwell
A Brief Biography

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.
—Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell always wanted to be an Artist. He was born in New York City in 1894. At the Age of 14, Rockwell enrolled in Art classes at The New York School of Art. In 1910, he left high School to study art at The National Academy of Design soon transferring to The Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for His First commercial commissions and From Bridgman, Rockwell learned His outstanding technical skills.
Rockwell’s early successes:
1. He painted his First commission of four Christmas Cards before his sixteenth Birthday.
2. While still in his teens, he was hired as art director of Boys’ Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America.
3. He began a successful freelance career illustrating a variety of Young people’s publications.
4. At Age 21, Rockwell set up a studio with the cartoonist Clyde Forsythe and produced work for such magazines as Life, Literary Digest, and Country Gentleman.
5. In 1916, the 22-year-Old Rockwell painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, the magazine considered by Rockwell to be the “greatest show window in America.”
The 1930s and 1940s are generally considered to be the most fruitful decades of Rockwell’s career. In 1943, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s address to Congress, Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms paintings. They were reproduced in four consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post with essays by contemporary writers. Rockwell’s interpretations of Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, Freedom From Want, and Freedom From Fear proved to be enormously popular. The works toured the United States in an exhibition That was jointly sponsored by the Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort.

Norman Rockwell Self Portriat

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