Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American 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. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the "Willie Gillis" series, "Rosie the Riveter", "The Problem We All Live With", "Saying Grace", and the "Four Freedoms" series. He is also noted for his 64-year relationship with the 'Boy Scouts of America' (BSA), during which he produced covers for their publication "Boys' Life", calendars, and other illustrations. These works include popular images that reflect the "Scout Oath" and "Scout Law" such as "The Scoutmaster", "A Scout is Reverent" and "A Guiding Hand", among many others.
Charmed the country for decades with his idealized depictions of American life in magazines, calendars, and advertisements. He painted more than 300 covers for "The Saturday Evening Post", more than 4,000 original works in his lifetime, commissioned to illustrate more than 40 books, including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as well as painting the portraits for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, as well as those of foreign figures, including Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jawaharlal Nehru. His portrait subjects included Judy Garland. One of his last portraits was of Colonel Sanders in 1973.
Norman Rockwell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.
Personal life
Rockwell married his first wife, Irene O'Connor, in 1916. Irene was Rockwell's model in Mother Tucking Children into Bed, published on the cover of The Literary Digest on January 19, 1921. The couple divorced in 1930.
Depressed, he moved briefly to Alhambra, California as a guest of his old friend Clyde Forsythe. There he painted some of his best-known paintings including The Doctor and the Doll. While there he met and married schoolteacher Mary Barstow in 1930. The couple returned to New York shortly after their marriage. They had three children: Jarvis Waring, Thomas Rhodes, and Peter Barstow. The family lived at 24 Lord Kitchener Road in the Bonnie Crest neighborhood of New Rochelle, New York. For multiple reasons, Rockwell and his wife were not regular church attendees, although they were members of St. John's Wilmot Church, an Episcopal Church near their home, where their sons were baptized. Rockwell moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939 where his work began to reflect small-town life.
In 1953, the Rockwell family moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, so that his wife could be treated at the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital close to where Rockwell set up his studio. Rockwell also received psychiatric treatment, seeing the analyst Erik Erikson, who was on staff at Riggs. Erikson is said to have told the artist that he painted his happiness, but did not live it. In 1959, Mary died unexpectedly of a heart attack.
Rockwell married his third wife, retired English teacher, Mary Leete "Mollie" Punderson (1896-1985), on October 25, 1961. His Stockbridge studio was located on the second floor of a row of buildings; directly underneath Rockwell's studio was, for a time in 1966, the Back Room Rest, better known as the famous "Alice's Restaurant." During his time in Stockbridge, chief of police William Obanhein was a frequent model for Rockwell's paintings.
From 1961 until his death, Rockwell was a member of the Monday Evening Club, a men's literary group based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. At his funeral, five members of the club served as pallbearers, along with Jarvis Rockwell.
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