Dakota Beacon

Perhaps what we need most today is an antidote to today.  Many of us are old enough to remember the Saturday Evening Post.  It nearly always had a cover by American illustrator Norman Rockwell.  Rockwell, more than any other of our great illustrators and artists, captured America of the 20th Century, an innocent time of America’s adolescence.  We were adventurous, patriotic, sentimental perhaps, we tended to be the moral America that de Tocqueville described in an earlier time.  America bound to succeed, America with a great destiny and a great history.

Rockwell, himself, was of English-American stock, his earliest American ancestor having arrived in New England in about 1635.  His own father was a lifelong manager of a New England textile firm.  He had one older brother.  At age 14 he began his formal study of art as a student at the Chase Art School and went on to the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League.  He began his cover art career very early, with St. Nicholas Magazine, Boys’ Life and other youth publications.  Many years ago I read his autobiography and remembered his stories of life as an impoverished art student.  One of his many part-time jobs was as an extra with the Metropolitan Opera.  He recounted how he began this job - a fellow student and friend told him to get right over to the Met - and be sure to wear long underwear!  A bit puzzled, he took this advice.  He soon found out why the long underwear.  The costumes for the extras had been around for a long time and the Met did not make cleaning them a priority.  Suffice it to say it was crawling.  He described working with some of the greats.  Caruso, he said, spent some time in conversation with him while performing in Aida.  During the tomb scenes there was a lot of time to talk.  Caruso was very supportive and kind, he said.  He saw Rockwell not as a poor part-time extra but as a fellow artist and encouraged him.  

He was rejected when he tried to enlist during World War I because he was too underweight for his height.  He remedied this deficiency by stuffing himself with bananas and doughnuts.  He went back and tried again, this time with success, but spent his Navy career as an artist and saw no military action.  

His career continued after the Great War, however, and he illustrated books - including Tom Sawyer and others.  He was sought after for magazine art and was also asked to participate in a daily cartoon feature.  He was too much a perfectionist, however, for the daily demand to produce a finished product.  He became involved also in the movie industry, producing numerous posters for major motion pictures.  (He appeared in the 1966 movie, Stagecoach, for which he did the artwork, in a bit part as an old gambler - sort of recalling his days with the Met!)

During World War II he did much patriotic artwork, including the so-called “Four Freedoms” referenced by FDR - “Freedom from Want”, “Freedom of Speech”, “Freedom of Worship” and “Freedom from Fear”.  He was also famous for his illustrations of war efforts such as “Rosie the Riveter”.  Later in his life he continued to illustrate American life in the context of our political development, as in the picture of little Ruby Bridges, a young black child pioneering desegregation in the South.  

Deeply patriotic, a product of his upbringing in his native New England of the early 20th Century, Rockwell’s work displayed a great love of his homeland and a profound respect for its history and traditions.  Today his work has become taken for granted, even labeled “kitschy” by some lesser artists and intellectual snobs.  But to many of us it recalls a time of both greater confidence and at the same time a greater humility.  His world was one of devoted mothers, a young couple in love applying for their marriage license full of hope for their future, a merry Santa Claus, young boy scouts, all that was best and most beautiful in the America in which he grew up and lived.  It is anything but “kitsch”.  

If we look at a Vermeer we see what Vermeer saw in 17th Century Holland.  If we look at the work of Goya we see 18th Century Spain.  Catlin, Remington and Russell reveal the American West of their time and Bierstadt the pristine and dramatic beauty of the Hudson River Valley, just as Manet gave us his perspective on Paris society.  But these works also reveal something of the artist as well.  They show us what they SEE as well as what THEY see.  If Rockwell saw a sweet and happy people, patriotic and hardworking, it was what he SAW and what HE saw.  His work exquisitely portrays his America and his American heroes - not the dashing and dramatic, heroic version of Napoleon by David, but the quiet, persevering, God-fearing heroes, the men, women and children of America doing what they do every day.  His work revealed the pathos and the inspiration of life as he saw it, perhaps more truly than any artist before or since, whether it was a difficult call by an umpire, the affection of a stray dog, the kindly attention of a country doctor to a child’s doll or the devotion of a mother or father to their family and children, or just ordinary people worshiping their God or honoring their flag.  It seems a good time to take a look at what Rockwell saw, the America he knew and portrayed with honesty and love.  

Rockwell was married three times, and twice widowed.  He had three sons with his second wife, Mary Barstow.  He is said to have observed that he painted happiness but did not live it.  He was often prey to depression.  He died in 1978 at the age of 84.  

A few of Rockwell’s views of America:

“Ruby” -  This speaks for itself - a commentary on the difficult road to equal opportunity

“Law Student” - This needs no caption - the student is trying to squeeze in a bit of study time on the job.

Tired Santa - This Santa is like anyone else - long days, long nights!  The elves keep working - one giving directions on Santa's shoulder, a team of them trying to get a doll into Santa's bag.

A kid who thought he’d run away - This is the image many of us have cherished of the friendly cop.  I think we all believe he talked the boy out of running away.  Notice the old radio?  I actually know a shop that looks a lot like this.

The sick doll -

The marriage license -  See the budding leaves on the branch outside the dusty window and the water spots and seams on the wallpaper?  Life is made of these snapshot moments.  The fiance’s arm around the girl, she on tiptoe to reach the desktop, the light bathing the room from the old film covered window. . .  you can almost imagine a hum in the air.

“Bottom of the Sixth” -

“After the Prom” - When times were simpler and so, so much better . . .

Boy Scouts -

In a diner - simple devotion with a couple of young men looking on.  Don’t you love the way the light filters in through the curtain?

G.I. feeding child - this is how we saw ourselves - the way we should see ourselves. . .

Peeling potatoes - the mom looks so proud and grateful - subtle, though

Man at prayer -

A father waiting to say goodbye to his son at the train station - This has always had such poignancy.  The father is time-worn, work-worn, aware that he has reached a new stage in his life just as his son has, he seems to be seeing the past as they wait, he looking back, his son excitedly anticipating the train coming from the other direction to take him to a new life of his own, his faithful collie seeming to know it’s goodbye to his best friend.  The young man seems oblivious to the pathos here as these last minutes are frozen for us.

A young girl at the mirror with a fan magazine - Here’s a young girl discovering herself in the mirror - her doll left on the floor as she seems to compare herself to the movie star in her magazine.  Another moment of time stopped as one person’s world changes forever.

Rockwell’s famous self-portrait - Not much to add to this - it’s brilliant!  He’s also been comparing his artistic ideas to those of some of the greats - Durer?  Van Gogh?  Rembrandt perhaps? 

Comments?  (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)