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Pictures for the American People A Family Guide

Family Guide

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Norman Rockwell Pictures for the American People A Family Guide

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Page 1: Family Guide

Pictures for the American People

A Family Guide

Page 2: Family Guide

LOOK Look closely at the painting Triple Self-Portrait. Can you find these items? See page 15 for answers.

• The “antique” that fooled Rockwell• The soft drink he often enjoyed as he worked• A reference to the accidental burning of his studio• A tribute to the great artists he admired

Are humorous: Look at No Swimming on thecover of this guide. Rockwell often paints the funniestmoment in a story. Rather than picture the boys swimming in the forbidden pool, Rockwell paints themoment when the rascals have been discovered and arefrantically trying to put their clothes back on as theyrace from the scene of the crime.

Celebrate ordinary, everyday life:Rockwell’s stories about swimming holes, gossiping,family vacations, and barbershops are not what you readabout in newspaper headlines and history textbooks.Rockwell painted scenes from the daily life of ordinarypeople.

Are skillfully painted: Rockwell carefullystudied the works of great artists like those pictured inthe upper right corner of the easel in Triple Self-Portrait. He also spent weeks, even months creating hispaintings.

Rockwell was born in New York City on February 3,1894. When he was nine years old, his family movedto the small town of Mamaroneck, New York. He was askinny boy and not very athletic, so he chose drawingas his hobby. At age eighteen, Rockwell became arteditor of Boys’ Life, the official magazine of the BoyScouts of America. When Rockwell was twenty-twoyears old, one of his paintings appeared on the cover ofThe Saturday Evening Post, which showcased the worksof the finest illustrators of the period. Remarkably, inforty-seven years, 321 of his paintings appeared on thecover of the Post, making him one of the most famouspainters of the twentieth century.

Norman Rockwell created paintings to be enjoyed byeveryone. Many fine artists create paintings and sculptures for private collectors, and sometimes thisartwork is not shown to the general public. Rockwell’spaintings were seen across America, as they appearedin books, advertisements, calendars, and on the coversof popular magazines, such as The Saturday EveningPost, Look, and Ladies’ Home Journal.

Rockwell oftenincluded an image

of himself in hispaintings. Look for a

“Find Norman” symbol inthis family guide. When you see it,search the painting for Rockwell’sface. Remember sometimes he isonly a face in the crowd.

Norman Rockwell’s paintings...Norman Rockwell’s paintings...

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Page 3: Family Guide

Many artists paint pictures of themselves,known as self-portraits.When Rockwell paintedthis self-portrait, heincluded images of someof his favorite artistsand shared details about his life.

TRY IT Pretend you made avisit to Rockwell’s studio. You twohit it off quite well, and Rockwelltold you that, as a gift, he would likeyou to select any item from thispainting. What would you bringhome and why? Draw a portrait ofyourself with your new treasure.

“It is no exaggeration to say simply that NormanRockwell is the most popular, the most loved, of all

contemporary artists...[H]e himself is likea gallery of Rockwell paintings–friendly, human,

deeply American, varied in mood, but full, always, of the zest of living.”

–Ben Hibbs, Saturday Evening Post Editor

Triple Self-Portrait, 1960The Saturday Evening Post© 1960 The Curtis PublishingCompany

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Page 4: Family Guide

FUN FACTDid you know

Rockwell left actualglobs of paint on

this canvas? Lookclosely at the critic’spalette. Each coloris a dried clump of

paint!

Rockwell The Artist

LOOK Here is a finished painting entitled Art Critic. To the right is an early sketch.How many differences can you find between the two versions? Can you think of any reasons why Rockwell changed what he did?

Art Critic, 1955, The Saturday Evening Post, © 1955 The Curtis Publishing Company

Rockwell The Artist

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Page 5: Family Guide

Rockwell didn’t just sit down and begin to paint. Each painting was carefullyplanned, and many took several months to complete.

• When he had an idea for a painting, Rockwell often took photographs ofmodels (sometimes his friends and neighbors) in various poses. A photo heused to create Art Critic is shown at the right.

• He then mixed and matched details from these photos and made numerouspencil sketches, rearranging the composition and adding new details.

• Rockwell sometimes coated the back of his final sketch with charcoal dustand laid it on top of a canvas. By tracing the top image, he left a dust outlineon the canvas.

• He then painted on top of this sketchy image with oil paints, which coveredup the charcoal lines. Even while he was painting the picture, Rockwell oftenmade changes in the poses, the backgrounds, and facial expressions.

Look more closely at some of Rockwell’s techniques.

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FUN FACTThe painting of thewoman in Art Criticwas based on photo-graphs of Rockwell’swife, Mary.

Art Critic (study), 1955, © The Curtis Publishing Company

Photo by Gene Pelham

Photo by Bill Scovill

Page 6: Family Guide

The paintings on these two pages are calledsequence paintings because they are composed of lots of little images that arecombined to tell a story, just like a comicstrip or a movie. The painting above is entitled Day in the Life of a Little Girl.Rockwell created another sequence paintingentitled Day in the Life of a Little Boy. Lookclosely at this little girl’s day and try to imagine what the boy’s day might look like.

Rockwell The Humorist

TRY IT Find a partner. Choose one of the images on this page but don’t tell your partner which you chose. Simply imitate the action and invite your partner to guess. Switch and then guess as your partner imitates one of the images.Remember, if you were a model for Norman Rockwell, youmight have to hold that pose for several minutes!

Day in the Life of a Little Girl, 1952, The Saturday Evening Post© 1952 The Curtis Publishing Company

Rockwell The Humorist

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Page 7: Family Guide

FUN FACTThe editor at TheSaturday Evening Postdid not believe thatanyone could have amouth as big as theman with the blackhat. He said that noone in Americawould believe it.Rockwell sent him aphoto of this manwith his mouth open,and the editor had toagree–that man hadone enormous mouth!So the painting waspublished exactly howRockwell painted it.

The Gossips, 1948, The Saturday Evening Post© 1948 The Curtis Publishing Company

SEARCH The people who posed for The Gossips were Rockwell’s neighbors inArlington, Vermont. His wife, Mary, appears in the painting, too. Look at her photo-graph on page 5 (posing for the painting Art Critic), then see if you can find her in thepainting below. The answer is on page 15. The models never knew how they wouldlook in the finished painting.

TRY IT Write dialogue for the people in thepainting. Why is the woman at the end shocked?

Do you think the story the woman tells in thebeginning has changed by the end? Why are some of the folks laughing?

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Page 8: Family Guide

During the 1940s and 1950s, afeeling of hopeful idealism couldbe found in a number of moviesand television shows, such as It’sa Wonderful Life or Leave It ToBeaver. Like many Rockwellpaintings, these shows depictedlife in an idealized Americanhome.

America went through many changes during Rockwell’s sixty-year career. He often illustrated these transitions from an old way of life to a new future by combining something traditional with something modern. Today, these paintings help us imaginewhat it must have been like to live in earlier times.

In the painting Goingand Coming, Rockwellshows an old-fashionedtradition: family gath-erings. This family,however, is wrapped ina modern invention:the American stationwagon.

LOOK Noticethe feelings Rockwellshows in the top partof the painting. Howare the two parts thesame, how are theydifferent? Look for theone person whoremains unchanged.

Inventing America

Going and Coming, 1947The Saturday Evening Post© 1947 The Curtis Publishing Company

Inventing America

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• Can you think of a TV show or movie about averagepeople doing ordinary things in a small town?

• If you were to write a story or make a movie, wouldit resemble your own life, or would it be a fantasy ofyour imagining?

• Can you think of any changes that have taken placein our world since your parents were your age?

Page 9: Family Guide

Rockwell remembers thinking about growing up when he was a child. He was a bit concerned aboutnot always fitting in with the other kids, “When I got to be ten or eleven…I could see I wasn’t God’sgift to man in general or to the baseball coach in particular….At the age boys who are athletes wereexpressing themselves fully….I didn’t have that. All I had was my ability to draw.”

Girl at Mirror, 1954The Saturday Evening Post

© 1954 The Curtis PublishingCompany

FUN FACTRockwell said if he

were to paint thiswork again, he

would leave outthe magazine.

How would thischange the

meaning of thepainting?

LOOK This painting captures a change from an old way of lifeto a new way. See how the girl is in a room surrounded with old-fashioned things–her doll, the chair, her clothing. They all relate tothe past. She is looking in a mirror thinking about growing up,and the comfortable old things around her may be Rockwell’s wayof suggesting that the old-fashioned values and traditions of thepast will help her as she moves into the future.

SEARCH The little girl in thispainting is Mary Whalen Leonard, whoRockwell met at a basketball game.Rockwell often used her as a modelbecause he found she could act out “anystory.” Look through the family guide tofind another painting in which you canfind her acting out several stories.

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Page 10: Family Guide

When the United States entered World War II inDecember 1941, Rockwell wanted to help in the wareffort. Remembering a speech President Franklin D.Roosevelt had made earlier in the year, Rockwellpainted pictures to help people better understand thefour basic freedoms the president thought everyone inthe world should have: freedom of speech, freedom toworship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

It took Rockwell seven months to complete the fourpaintings. He painted Freedom of Speech and Freedomto Worship several times before he was satisfied withthe results. In the middle of the night when ponder-ing how to best depict freedom of speech, Rockwellwas struck with what he called “the best idea I’d everhad.” He remembered a man who stood up at a townmeeting and made a comment. Everyone disagreedwith him but believed that he had the right to speakhis mind. This, Rockwell thought, was what freedomof speech was all about.

FUN FACT Rockwell claimedthat the turkey featured in Freedomfrom Want was, in fact, the Rockwellfamily’s Thanksgiving turkey. He laterconfessed, “This was oneof the few times I’veever eaten themodel.”

Honoring the American SpiritHonoring the American Spirit

Freedom of Speech, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post© 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

Freedom from Want, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post© 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

SEARCH Rockwell used many of his friends and family in this painting. The woman serving theThanksgiving turkey in Freedom from Want was theRockwell family cook, and he also included his wife,Mary. Look closely to find her.

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Page 11: Family Guide

FUN FACTThe American people

responded enthusiastically toThe Four Freedoms. After the

paintings appeared in TheSaturday Evening Post, 70,000people wrote letters of praise

to the magazine. That’s astack of letters over six basketball goals high!

LOOK Rockwell was able toconvey complicated ideas withoutusing words. By looking at thedetails of a painting–the clothingpeople wear, the expressions on theirfaces–we discover things about themthat would take pages of text toexplain.

Freedom to Worship, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post© 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

Freedom from Fear, 1943The Saturday Evening Post

© 1943 The Curtis Publishing Company

SEARCH The father in Freedom from Fearappears in all four paintings. Can you find him?

SEARCH The woman witha braid in her hair in Freedom toWorship also appears in anotherpainting in this guide. Can you findher?

TRY IT Pick a person fromone of The Four Freedoms anddescribe everything you can abouthis or her life just by the detailsRockwell has painted.

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Page 12: Family Guide

FUN FACTDuring his life,Rockwell traveled tomany countries inEurope, as well asIndia, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey.

“Like everyone else, I'm concerned with the world situation, and like everyone else, I'd like to

contribute something to help.”–Norman Rockwell

Golden Rule, 1961, The Saturday Evening Post© 1961 The Curtis Publishing Company

Honoring the American SpiritHonoring the American Spirit

Throughout his life,Rockwell was concernedwith political issues, suchas racism, poverty, andsocial injustice. In the1960s, Rockwell paintedfor Look magazine. Theseillustrations addressedimportant events of theday and were generallyless humorous than thosehe painted for TheSaturday Evening Post.

LOOK Rockwell used photos of his friendsand neighbors in Vermont and Massachusettsto compose the painting Golden Rule. Whatsimilarities do you see between these individu-als? Notice he shows two different womenholding babies. Why do you think he put twopeople in almost the same pose at the center ofthe painting?

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Page 13: Family Guide

When Rockwell painted New Kids in theNeighborhood, America was experiencing thecivil rights movement. Families from differentcultures and backgrounds were beginning tolive in the same neighborhoods, eat at the samerestaurants, and sit next to each other on buses.

LOOK The two groups of children in NewKids in the Neighborhood may look different, butthey also have several things in common. Canyou find them? When the kids start to talk andplay together, what do you think they will find?

New Kids in the Neighborhood, 1967, Look © 1967 The Norman Rockwell

Estate Licensing Company

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Page 14: Family Guide

“Commonplaces are never tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curiousor appreciative...[We] find that it is not a new scene

which is needed, but a new viewpoint.”–Norman Rockwell

Celebrating the Commonplace

Rockwell liked to focuson the lives of ordinarypeople in typicalAmerican towns,enjoying the simplepleasures of life. These images provedvery popular withSaturday Evening Postreaders. They felt thatthey were seeing themselves on thecover of a magazine!

Shuffleton’s Barbershop, 1950The Saturday Evening Post© 1950 The Curtis Publishing Company

Celebrating the Commonplace

TRY IT In this painting,Rockwell carefully created a

composition out of rectangles.With a dark marker, outline the

rectangles you can see. Noticehow Rockwell built his painting

around these shapes.

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LOOK When looking at the painting Shuffleton’s Barbershop, whatis your viewpoint? Where are you standing as you look in on this scene?

What kinds of clues can you find about the shop? Who might work there? What other hobbies do they have?

Who are the people inside, and how long have they known each other?Can you think of a tune they might be playing? What other

instruments might be in the group hidden from our view?

Rockwell gives us lots of clues to help us understand the story he’stelling. Sometimes he leaves things hidden so we can imagine

stories of our own.

Page 15: Family Guide

ANSWERSPage 2The gold helmetatop the easel: Rockwellthought it was an antiquearmy helmet but laterdiscovered it was just afireman’s hat!

Norman Rockwell’s dailycola drink is precariouslyperched on his art book.

The smoke rising fromthe trash can is a refer-ence to the accidentalburning of Rockwell’s stu-dio in 1943.

The pictures pinned toRockwell’s canvas are self-portraits by AlbrechtDürer, Rembrandt, PabloPicasso, and Vincent vanGogh.

Page 7Mary is the sec-ond person from the leftin the third row.

ON THE COVER No Swimming, 1921, The Saturday Evening Post© 1921 The Curtis Publishing Company

T H E D N R E D O M E E D

R L A N O I T I D A R T E

E A R S P I H S O G I H A

D C O M M O N P L A C E M

B I T O T H A W R Z H L E

E T A D E U M T A I A L R

C I R E R M R E I N M E I

N L T E B O O P C E O W C

E O S R P R N A I T D K A

U P U F E O H I L R E C N

Q I L E L U R N E D L O G

E E L G S S E T C H S R Y

S D I P H O T O G R A P H

WORD SEARCHtraditionalmodernmagazinegolden rule

self-portraitNormanRockwellsequence

Page 7 (Find Norman)Rockwell appears in thelast row, pointing at thewoman. He was thesubject of thegossip.

Page 9She also was themodel for Day in the Lifeof a Little Girlon page 6.

Page 10Mary Rockwellis sitting on the left ofthe table, and Rockwell’smother is on the right.

Page 10 (Find Norman)Only a portion ofRockwell’s face can beseen. His eye is visibleon the left edge of thepainting, looking at theman speaking.

Page 11Rose Hoyt alsoappears in Golden Rule.

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politicalillustratorhumorouscommonplace

freedomsphotographmodelsAmerican

Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People is organized by The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge

and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

The exhibition and its national tour are made possible by Ford Motor Company.

The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are also made possible by The Henry Luce Foundation.Additional support is provided by The Curtis Publishing Company and

The Norman Rockwell Estate Licensing Company. Education programs for the national tour are made possible by

Fidelity Investments through the Fidelity Foundation.

In Atlanta, the exhibition is made possible by The Fraser-Parker Foundation.

Page 16: Family Guide

TRY IT Make your own Saturday Evening Post cover using Rockwell’s technique (see pages4-5 for ideas). Think of something you want to celebrate about your life, your town, or your

neighborhood. Sketch all the different ideas you have, then select the very best one. Using asharp pencil, lightly trace the outlines of the image in the box provided. Add more details by

tracing from different images. When you are finished, use crayons or paint to color in the image.