The famous American illustrator Norman Rockwell was born in New York City on February 3, 1894. As this Norman Rockwell biography reveals, he lived quite a full life before he died on November 8, 1978. For many years, his illustrations graced the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, depicting American life in all its glorious splendor. This is just one highlight of a very interesting career.
As a boy, Rockwell and his family summered at country farms. He attributes these pleasant times as being a large inspiration for his later paintings. At an early age, Rockwell discovered drawing and quickly determined that he would be an artist. When he was a freshman in high school, he studied art at the Chase School on Saturdays. During his sophomore year, he decided to attend art school full-time, enrolling at the National Academy School and then the Art Students League.
Teacher George Bridgeman helped him with drawing and Thomas Fogarty served as an inspiration for illustration. Mr. Fogarty sent Rockwell to a publisher while still in school, which resulted in a job doing illustrations for a children's book. His next assignment was working for Boys' Life magazine and the editor took a liking to him, providing him with additional work. Eventually, Rockwell was appointed art director for this magazine.
Additional regular work on other children's magazines led to a 1916 visit to Philadelphia to meet with the editor of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell had long dreamed of illustrating a cover of the magazine and made the journey without first securing an appointment. Upon arrival, he showed the art editor his work, who passed it to the magazine editor, George Horace Lorimer.
The rest is history, as two finished paintings were accepted for covers and three sketches were reserved for future covers. Based on his success with the Post, Rockwell was able to sell his work to Judge, Leslie's, and Life. Upon joining the Navy during World War I, he was assigned to work on the camp newspaper. When the war ended, he began doing illustrations for products like Jell-O.
For more than 50 years, Rockwell painted a picture for display in the Boy Scout calendar. By 1941, he had secured a one-man show at the Milwaukee Art Institute. No Norman Rockwell biography would be complete without mention of his paintings of the four human freedoms described by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which were used to sell war bonds. Rockwell's paintings sell for an average of $20,000 and he created more than 4,000 original works during his lifetime.
Kenny Chan has been an avid collector of Norman Rockwell artwork. He has amassed thousands pieces of Rockwell artwork such as paintings and illustrations. Kenny Chan has even taken the extra miles by creating a blog called Norman Rockwell Paintings which is dedicated solely to Rockwell paintings. Find out more from his blog about Norman Rockwell and learn about one of Rockwell most famous paintings, Norman Rockwell Four Freedom Paintings, through his blog.
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