Norman Rockwell (1894–1978)

I've always found it strange art that is extremely popular with the masses is eschewed by the critics of the day. So Norman Rockwell is regarded as an illustrator rather than an "artist". I wonder how history will view it. I must confess that I've always really loved Rockwell's paintings. Maybe it's his realism....maybe it's his sense of humour....or his cartoonists eye for the essence of every day life that he captures so well and all of us can identify with it. Even I can. And I'm not show more American. This is a large format book...large enough to capture some of the details from Rockwell's paintings...though he painted them large and they were reduced for the magazine covers etc.....which helps with the detail. The exhibition and book cover a large slice of his artistic career from 1910 to 1970. And there are a large number of his paintings and drawings over that period included. He died in 1978 at the age of 84 so I guess in 1970 he was 76 and able to look back on a long and illustrious career. There are a few large fold-out pictures but most are confined to the rather large page size of the book. I discovered, in my researches that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were both collectors of Rockwell's paintings. "That -- drama, pathos and passion, inexorably bound -- is Rockwell's legacy. His, agenda, Spielberg reminds us, was a "benign but important agenda," a desire for community, an appreciation of responsibility and patriotism, and the life-long conviction that the key to understanding our nation was to embrace our neighbor.
Anyway, bottom line, I really enjoyed the book...it told me quite a lot about Rockwells' methodology: loose sketch of an idea, then gathering props, costumes models, individual drawings of the various parts, or photographs, then a full scale drawing in great detail, then colour sketches, and finally putting it all together in the final (oil) painting. No wonder his work is so carefully crafted!
Happy to give this book five stars. I really enjoyed it. show less

I love Saki’s stories. My father read them aloud from when I was a small child, and I’ve returned to them regularly over the years, especially around the time of his sudden death a few years ago.

I’d forgotten this one, and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as many of his. It has the signature mix of waspish satire, animals, humour, and a dash of non-Christian beliefs (reincarnation, in this case), but “A little beast of a naked brown Nubian boy” jars to modern eyes and ears.

The show more characters' names are not as strange as those in many of his stories, but I'm sure it's no coincidence that the character who is very fond of his hens is called Egbert.

All the narrative is in the past tense.
Except for the final sentence, which is in the present.
The circle of life - and death?

Image: A European otter (common in the UK), in autumnal leaves (Source)

Quotes

“‘You are not really dying, are you?’ asked Amanda.
‘I have the doctor's permission to live till Tuesday,’ said Laura.”

“As a matter of fact Laura died on Monday.
‘So dreadfully upsetting,’ Amanda complained to her uncle-in-law, Sir Lulworth Quayne. ‘I've asked quite a lot of people down for golf and fishing, and the rhododendrons are just looking their best.’
‘Laura always was inconsiderate,’ said Sir Lulworth; ‘she was born during Goodwood week, with an Ambassador staying in the house who hated babies.’”

See also

The Best of Saki, in which I reviewed many of his stories, HERE.

Short story club

I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.

You can read this story here.

You can join the group here. show less

A cute little story about being yourself and discovering your own special talents. It's also about how your talents could become exploited, in a way. An anti-conformity story for children.

The talent is beyond reproach--rather incredible--but I have trouble with the corniness of this art. My copy was found (I forget where) with 9 pieces of marketing material including a sheet from The Norman Rockwell Family Trust (undated), a "market analysis report" for a Rockwell plate ("A Young Girl'd Dream"), and a sheet from The Bradford Exchange.