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

Why did I even read this? I should have just looked at the art. It has nice art. Obviously if you're a huge Norman Rockwell fan that helps. I have a mild appreciation for his work.

Unless you're elderly and/or very religious about your Christmas feels (which I'm not) I doubt you'll enjoy much of the actual text. I certainly didn't. Bad short stories, bad poems, bible excerpts, carols with sheet music (why?). This is...an odd book. And a boring one. Meh.

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.

One of a series, this book consists of a series of narratives about growing up in America, accompanied by selections of Norman Rockwell's art. I found myself glossing over the narratives, and it's not clear to me whether they are written by guest writers or the credited author, Victoria Crenson. The draw here is Rockwell's art. I don't really understand those who dismiss him as a mere illustrator. To me, he was an artist who told stories with his art. I don't see that he particularly show more idealized America through his art either, another charge frequently leveled against him. Even his works from before my birth seem familiar to me; they present situations and emotions that are near-universal. My favorites here are: "Breaking Home Ties", about a college-bound young man waiting at the bus stop with his farmer father, and is the "Saturday Evening Post" cover for the day I was born. This is probably my favorite Rockwell. Others are "Girl At Mirror", in which a young and spindly girl dolefully surveys herself in the mirror, a movie star picture in her lap, and "The Marriage License", which shows a young couple at the clerk's office filling out a marriage license, and manages to convey the excited optimism of a couple in love starting their lives together, and the jaded amusement of the clerk who has seen the same scene a thousand times. show less