February 3: Birthday of Norman Rockwell (1894)
Prayer Idea
Pray for artists as they share beauty and emotion through their work.
History Note
Norman Rockwell painted moments from American life: Thanksgiving dinner with the family, Boy Scouts praying at their campsite, Mother’s arms outstretched when her son comes back from war. He painted scenes that make us feel good about ourselves, scenes that lift us up to a better way of living. His paintings make us see the value of each human being. As Norman Rockwell said:
Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.
Rockwell began with an idea for a painting and then arranged his scenes with real objects and real people. He moved them again and again until they looked just right. He often used his friends and neighbors as models in his paintings. He acted out expressions for them and sometimes sent them to change clothes to get the right look.
When everything was to his liking, he took photographs and made sketches. Finally, he painted his illustration on a large canvas. Many were about 3 feet by 4 feet. When the painting was finished, he sent it to a magazine publisher, book publisher, or advertising agency who paid for the right to publish it.
During his decades-long career, Rockwell’s work appeared in magazines such as Life, Literary Digest, Country Gentleman, and Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper. He painted 322 covers for The Saturday Evening Post between 1916 and 1963. Rockwell served as an artist in the U.S. Navy during World War I and painted patriotic images during World War II. He also had a long association with the Boy Scouts.
Born on February 3, 1894, Norman Rockwell died in 1978 at the age of 84.
During the 1960s, Rockwell portrayed current events in his work. In a painting titled The Problem We All Live With, Rockwell showed U.S. marshals escorting a young girl named Ruby Bridges as she integrated an elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana. This photo shows President Barack Obama with a grown up Ruby Bridges looking at the painting while it hung at the White House in 2011. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.
Learn More
Visit Homeschool History to watch a biographical video of Rockwell.
