Beloved American illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) created compelling tales in pencil and paint that have found their way into the hearts – and the collective subconscious – of the nation. As Virginia M. Mecklenburg, senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, has said, Rockwell was a “mythmaker” and “a master storyteller who could distill a narrative into a single frame.”

While some prominent art critics turned up their noses at Rockwell during his lifetime, deriding his work as commercial and sentimental, recent articles and exhibitions have taken a much more admiring look at this iconic illustrator, praising him for his immense skill as a figurative painter and for his keen social observation.

Many of his pieces have hit auction records, such as “Saying Grace” (1951), which sold for $46 million in 2013. His paintings are regularly snapped up at lofty prices by celebrity collectors like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who have both said Rockwell helped inspire their cinematic careers.

The Hilbert Collection has acquired a highly finished pencil study by Rockwell that was created in preparation for a 1946 Saturday Evening Post cover, and another, slightly later Rockwell drawing from the 1950s. This exhibition seeks to examine these drawings in the context of the work Rockwell was doing for the Saturday Evening Post at that time.

Born in New York City, Rockwell began his art studies at the National Academy of Design and later attended the Art Students League. Like his contemporary Walt Disney, Rockwell’s particular genius was in portraying a sincere, heartfelt appreciation for America and the American way of life. “I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who may not have noticed,” Rockwell said of his work.

Rockwell became art director of Boy’s Life (the official Boy Scout magazine) while still in his teens. After painting covers for several other magazines, Rockwell received his first commission from the Saturday Evening Post in 1916, at the age of 22. The 1930s through the 1950s are considered to be Rockwell’s most fruitful artistic years, as his themes shifted to small-town American life.

In his 47 years at the Post, Rockwell illustrated 322 covers, and his charming, accessible images resonated with the magazine’s audience of more than 3 million readers. But his works weren’t always just heartwarming nostalgia. Rockwell also tackled tough subjects like civil rights and diversity, in an era when those topics could be a difficult sell to a mainstream audience.

In 1963, Rockwell ended his nearly five-decade association with the Saturday Evening Post and went to work for Look magazine, where the themes of his works spanned issues ranging from the war on poverty to space exploration. In the 1970s, he founded the society that would later become the Norman Rockwell Museum. He passed away peacefully at his home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in November 1978, at the age of 84.

Image:

NORMAN ROCKWELL (1894-1978)

"Crestwood Commuter Station" 1946

Graphite and charcoal pencil on paper

The Hilbert Collection