| While many
people recognize Norman Rockwell as an artist, he considered himself an
"illustrator" considering that his paintings were the means by which he
fulfilled his commissions for magazines and advertising. Given the fact
that original Norman Rockwell oil paintings now sell for sums in excess
of $1 million, the facts would seem to be moving toward artist. At the
time he painted, the paintings were considered to have little or no value
and as such were often simply given away. Some were retained by the ad
agencies who commissioned the work, often more by afterthought than by
design.
Norman Rockwell was born in New York City
in 1894, and at the early age of 14 he entered a presigious art school
to realize his passion since childhood of becoming an artist. Attending
the prestigious National Academy of Design and the Art Students League,
he studied with some of the great artists and illustrators of the time
such as Thomas Fogarty. By the age of 16, he was earning his first commissions
doing cards and illustrations, and he was hired as the art director at
Boy's Life Magazine where he developed his lifelong passion for the scouts,
later to enter his work in multiple ways.
Rockwell executed his commissions by staging
a set and specially selected props for his illustration, and then he drew
the result. This was a consistent pattern for all of his work from ad work
to Saturday Evening Post covers, considered by Rockwell to be the "greatest
show window in America, "for which he is most famous. Eventually, his work
would appear on the covers of 321 editions of the Saturday Evening Post.
His early work was done almost totally in the presence of the physical
set, while later in life he used photography to capture the settings, and
then he worked from the photos. He usually began his work with a pencil
or charcoal drawing to capture the basic lines and forms, sometimes followed
by studies in oil during which he experimented with alternatives he was
considering. Only then did Rockwell begin the final oil painting. By all
accounts, Norman Rockwell loved to paint, and he painted whether for a
commission he had secured or simply for his own enjoyment.
Norman Rockwell c. 1960 |
Most Rockwell paintings were also translated
into a finite number of signed and numbered lithographs. Most Rockwell
lithographs were produced by either Ettinger, Abrams, or Circle Fine Art,
and all bear pencil signatures and edition numbers. While this is not true
of all works, most Rockwell paintings were printed in editions of 200,
with 65 artist proof lithographs on "arches" paper and the remainder on
paper with full margins around the perimeter of the work. Rockwell prints
were produced as both lithographs and as lesser known collotypes, using
a slightly different printing technique and a different kind of coated
paper.
While best known for his Saturday Evening
Post covers, Rockwell was also well known for other work such as his boy
scout prints. Many American families used dinnerware during and after his
lifetime that bore classic Rockwell images, and inexpensive prints were
produced in large numbers. The Norman Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, Massashusetts
has one of the world's finest collection of Rockwell paintings, left to
the museum by Norman Rockwell upon his death at home in Stockbridge in
1978.
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