Norman Rockwell

Norman Percevel Rockwell (New York, 1894 - 1978) was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works are very popular in the United States, because he created the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios in The Saturday Evening Post over more than four decades.

He started painting at the age of fourteen and was very prolific. He produced over 4,000 original works. Rockwell also illustrated over 40 books including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Rockwell’s work recieved serious art critics in his lifetime. Many of his works were considered “sweet”, especially the Saturday Evening Post covers, which showed idealistic or sentimentalized portraits of American life. There is a deprecatory adjective in english: “Rockwellesque”. Consequently, Rockwell is not considered a “serious painter” by some contemporary artists.

In his later years, Rockwell began receiving more attention as a painter when he chose more serious subjects such as the series on racism for Look Magazine. Two examples of this more serious work is The Problem We All Live With, about school racial integration. The painting depicts a young African American girl, Ruby Bridges, flanked by white policeman, walking to school passing a wall with a racist graffiti. And New Kids in the Neighborhood, which shows two black kids arriving in a white neigbourhood, and their new neighbours looking astonished at them (even the dog).

I like his work a lot because his paintings are very realistic and happy. Many of them are funny, and I think he is a great painter.

Enjoy!