As is so often the case, Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) wasn’t considered a true artist in his time. He was very successful commercially, designing cover pages for the “Saturday Evening Post” for almost five decades, among others. The public knew and loved him for his accurate if somewhat embellished observations of smalltown America. But he was a contemporary of Jackson Pollock, his paintings were considered to be illustrations rather than works of art, irrelevant to art critics.
He may have suffered from the discrepancy of his public success and the disinterest of the art world. But his darker side included other, unresolved issues, alluded to in this Wall Street Journal article interviewing the author of a biography on Rockwell.
So there it is again, the tale of an artist, creating thousands of paintings, nowadays considered to be very important and influential indeed, found on postcards and hanging on walls everywhere, including the White House. The tale of a possibly very unhappy man, sad and ill through most of his life.
vignettiste 