Rockwell Norman is a typical American

Rockwell Norman (1894-1978) - American illustrator and artist, popular in his homeland, in the United States of America. Almost five decades he was a mirror of American culture.

Childhood

Rockwell Norman was born in New York. His ancestors moved to America in search of a better life from the county of Somerset in Britain and were among the first settlers in Windsor , Connecticut.

Parents transferred a capable boy from high school to art when he was fourteen years old. At the age of 15 he was famous - he painted postcards for Christmas. A variety of topics: preparation for Christmas in the kitchen, akin to the embrace of the meeting, depicting happy people and children happy - has brought a lot of adolescence to the teenager. Further, Rockwell Norman studied at the National Academy of Design and in the League of Art Students. At the age of eighteen, he already illustrated "Stories about mother nature." After that, he was invited to draw sketches from the life of the boys. He successfully coped and at age 19 became the art editor of the magazine "The Life of Boys", which was intended for the Boy Scouts of America. So, drawing covers for magazines, he spent three years.

Independent work

At twenty-one, Rockwell Norman created his own studio. Orders were not long in coming. For the weekly "Saturday Evening Magazine", he created covers for 50 years, believing that he more accurately than all other publications reflects the life of Americans. In New York, the artist married, but the marriage was short-lived. Frustrated and depressed, he leaves for a friend in California, where he meets Mary Barstow and marries her. A young couple returns to the suburbs of New York - New Rochelle. They have three children. This is 30-40 years - the time of the most fruitful work Rockwell. In 1939, the family moved to Arlington. There in his works there will be a theme of life of a small town. This can be, for example, an office where an elderly man and a young woman work for typewriters. Around them life is boiling, the porter enters the room with a box, someone rearranges the tables, but the couple behind the machines enthusiastically works.

World War II and later

I really wanted the artist to be drafted into the army and to protect the world from Nazism. But the first time it was not taken - he was too lean. I had to sit on a diet that consisted of donuts and bananas. This helped only in part. He was called, but was not sent to the front line. In 1943, Norman was inspired by Roosevelt's speech, in which the President expressed four principles of universal rights: freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and country's freedom from fear. These themes deeply affected both the citizen and the human artist by the name of Norman Rockwell. The pictures were created quickly. The artist himself considered the work "Freedom of speech" to be the best. The canvas depicts a simple ordinary American who is standing on the platform, and next to him is located and, importantly, he listens to his wealthy, judging by the clothes, the audience. The picture "Freedom from want" depicts an average American family gathered at a table in a bright clean neat room. The table is perfectly served, and it already has fruit and dessert, and the hostess is looking for a place to put a large oval dish with a turkey. In the same year, a fire broke out in his workshop, which destroyed both paintings and historical props. Therefore, the fire divided his work into two parts. Now the artist works only with modern material, where only characters and situations that were consonant with time were represented. In 1959, his wife suddenly died of a heart attack. Grief suspended his work.

Further life and creativity

In 1961, Rockwell married for the third time. By this time he and his family live in the town of Stockbridge. Rockwell was a prolific artist. During his life he wrote more than four thousand works. This includes paintings, calendars, covers for magazines, illustrations for fiction, and advertising for Coca-Cola, and film posters, portraits and much more. The generalized portrait of students, executed graphically, is interesting. Good smart faces of girls and young men immediately evoke sympathy for the younger generation.

President Nixon's portrait shows a statesman not in a parade and not in a family life, but on an indistinct brownish background, which, however, does not create gloom. In front of the viewer is an open-minded person who will listen to every request addressed to him.

The painting "Matthew Brady takes pictures of Lincoln" was created in 1975, when the artist was already approaching the end of his activities. Unfortunately, this historical theme was not successful. The image is too similar to a holiday card.

In the last years of his life he raised such serious topics as racism. The picture "The problem that we all live with" considers the question of combining white and black children in one school. The black girl is escorted to school by guards, and the walls are covered with racist graffiti.

Norman Rockwell is an artist whose artistry is perceived ambiguously. Most tend to be too "sweet" and sentimental and idealize American life.

Conclusion

In 1977, Rockwell was awarded the Freedom Medal. And in 1978 the artist died at the age of 84 years. Life was spent in work and ordinary household concerns, but problems with bread daily Norman Rockwell, this biography showed, did not feel, financially he was very successful.