Daily Art Fixx

visual arts blog, painting, drawing, sculpture, illustration and more!

Norman Rockwell: 1894 – 1978

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Rockwell-Norman-portraitBorn on February 3, 1894, in New York City, Norman Rockwell was one of the most popular and recognized American artists of his time.

Rockwell had an interest in art early in life  and at age 14, he  enrolled at The Chase School of Art (currently The New York School of Art). In 1910, he left high school and studied art at The National Academy of Design and then transferred to The Art Students League of New York.

Rockwell achieved success quickly and while still in his teens, was hired as the Art Director of  “Boy’s Life” Magazine (Boy Scouts publication). When he was 21, Rockwell and his family moved to New Rochelle, New York where he shared a studio with cartoonist Clyde Forsythe and worked for magazines including Life, Literary Digest, and Country Gentleman.   In 1916, Rockwell created his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post. During his early career, Rockwell was influenced greatly by popular illustrators including  N.C. Wyeth, J.C. Leyendecker, Maxfield Parrish and Howard Pyle.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Rockwell developed further depth and character in his paintings and illustrations. “His use of humor became an important part of his work. It was a technique he used effectively to draw the viewer into the composition to share the magic. Rockwell was constantly seeking new ideas and new faces in his daily life. He painted not only the scenes and people close to him but, in a quest for authenticity, would approach total strangers and ask them to sit for him. His internal art of ‘storytelling’ became integrated with his external skills as an artist. What emerged was what we know today as an incredible facility in judging the perfect moment; when to stop the action, snap the picture…when all the elements that define and embellish a total story are in place.” (NMAI)

The 1930s and 1940s are considered the most successful decades of Rockwell’s career. In 1930 he married Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, with whom he had three sons, Jarvis, Thomas, and Peter. In 1939, the family moved to Arlington, Vermont and Rockwell began to produce full canvas paintings depicting small-town American life.

During World War II, Rockwell became involved in the war effort to help boost the sale of savings bonds.  The result was his extremely popular The Four Freedoms, at first rejected by the U.S. Government but then printed as posters to sell war bonds. “The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly sponsored by The Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort.”

Unfortunately in 1943, a  fire in Rockwell’s Arlington studio, destroyed numerous paintings and his collection of historic costumes and props. Rockwell would spend countless hours searching for the costumes and items to create his scenes, and the loss of this collection was particularly painful for the artist.

In the late 1940s and 1950s Rockwell continued to be one of the most prolific and recognized illustrators in the country. In his 47 years with The Saturday Evening Post, he created 322 covers.  He also produced work for Ladies Home Journal, McCall’s, Literary Digest, and LOOK magazine.

In 1953, the Rockwells moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Six years later, Mary Barstow Rockwell died unexpectedly.

In 1960, Rockwell (in collaboration with his son, Tom),  published his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator. The Saturday Evening Post published parts of the best-selling book in a series of excerpts.

In 1961, Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher. Two years later, he ended his 47-year affiliation with The Saturday Evening Post and began to work for Look magazine. During his 10-year relationship with Look, Rockwell’s work addressed American social issues including civil rights, poverty, and the exploration of space.

In 1962, Rockwell told Esquire magazine: “I call myself an illustrator but I am not an illustrator. Instead, I paint storytelling pictures which are quite popular but unfashionable. No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He’s got to put all of his talent, all of his feeling into them. If illustration is not considered art, then that is something that we have brought upon ourselves by not considering ourselves artists. I believe that we should say, ‘I am not just an illustrator, I am an artist’.” (NMAI)

In 1973 Rockwell established a trust placing his works under the custodianship of Stockbridge’s historic Old Corner House. The trust now forms the core of the permanent collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. In 1976, Rockwell added his Stockbridge studio and all its contents to the bequest. In 1977, Rockwell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his “vivid and affectionate portraits of our country.”

Norman Rockwell died at his home in Stockbridge on November 8, 1978, at the age of 84.

Sources: Norman Rockwell Museum, Saturday Evening Post, PBS, National Museum of American Illustration

Norman Rockwell on Amazon

Fourth of July: Saturday Evening Post Covers

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saturday-evening-post-j-c-leyendecker-sleeping-uncle-sam-1924Happy Fourth of July to all of our American friends and fans!  In honour of this day, DAF presents a collection of Fourth of July covers from one of America’s most enduring magazines – The Saturday Evening Post. Most of these images were created by J.C. Leyendecker but there are a few others, including the very first Fourth of July themed covers by Guernsey Moore in 1900 and J.J. Gould in 1903.  The magazine seems to have abandoned the idea after 1953 except for the most recent cover by Eric Bowman in 2009.

Have a great holiday everyone!

Source: Saturday Evening Post

J. C. Leyendecker: 1874-1951

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Saturday Evening Post Cover-J.C. Leyendecker 1936Born on March 23, 1874, in Montabour, Germany, Joseph Christian Leyendecker was  America’s most popular and successful commercial artist in the early decades of the 20th century.

In 1882, the Leyendecker family immigrated to Chicago, Illinois where his mother’s uncle had founded the McAvoy Brewing Company. After studying drawing and anatomy under John H. Vanderpoel at the Chicago Art Institute, J. C. and his brother Frank traveled to Paris where they studied at the Académie Julian. During this time they were exposed to the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Chéret, Alfons Mucha, and the French Art Nouveau movement. The brother’s returned to America in 1899 and in that same year, J.C. received his first commission for a Saturday Evening Post cover. It was the first of over 320 covers he would create for the Post, as well as many advertisement illustrations for the magazine’s interior pages. Leyendecker’s most well known work for the post was the New Year’s Baby. For close to forty years, the Post featured a Leyendecker Baby on its New Year’s covers.

Leyendecker also made a name for himself through his illustrations for the Arrow brand of detachable shirt collars.  Leyendecker created his “Arrow Collar Man”, a handsome, smartly dressed man who became the “symbol of fashionable American manhood.” Charles A. Beach was the original Arrow Collar model. Beach was Leyendecker’s assistant, business agent, and companion – a relationship that lasted nearly 50 years.

As well, Leyendecker designed posters for the World War I and World War II efforts that inspired many Americans to support the cause.  His sports posters which often promoted Ivy League football, baseball and crew teams, were widely collected by college students.

Leyendecker also created advertisements for The House of Kuppenheimer, Ivory Soap, and Kelloggs, as well as covers for other magazines including Collier’s and Success.

Leyendecker reached the height of his fame in the 1930’s. “His popularity grew from his ability to establish a specific and readily identifiable signature style.  With his very wide, deliberate stroke done with authority and control, he seldom overpainted, preferring to interest the viewer with the omissions as well as the parts included. Leyendecker’s approach to his career influenced the art of illustration and he became a mentor to an entire generation of younger artists, most notably Norman Rockwell, who began his career by emulating Leyendecker.”

By the end of the 1930s, Leyendecker’s grew less popular. He painted his last cover for the Post shortly after the U.S.A entered World War II.  “Though few today recognize the name Leyendecker, his work was some of the most popular of its day, owing to his ability to convey the essence of both everyday life in America and international events through paintings that reflected his unique sense of drama, romanticism and humor.”

J. C. Leyendecker died of a heart attack on July 25, 1951. He is buried alongside his parents and brother Frank at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York.

Sources: Wikipedia, National Museum of American Illustration, The Haggin Museum,

J.C. Leyendecker: New Year’s Baby

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leyendecker-new-years-babyJ.C. Leyendecker created over 320 covers for the Saturday Evening Post, the most well known are his “New Year’s Baby” series which ran every year from 1908 to 1943.  To see the full collection of New Year’s Babies, visit the Saturday Evening Post website.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Art-e-Facts: 5 Random Art Facts – XVII

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1. “Art for art’s sake” is the English version of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, ”l’art pour l’art” , and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only “true” art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function. “The term is credited to Théophile Gautier (1811–1872). Such works are sometimes described as “autotelic”, from the Greek autoteles, “complete in itself”, a concept that has been expanded to embrace “inner-directed” or “self-motivated” human beings. A Latin version of this phrase, “Ars gratia artis”, is used as a slogan by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appears in the circle around the roaring head of Leo the Lion in their motion picture logo. (Wikipedia)

2. Verism is the artistic preference of contemporary everyday subject matter instead of the heroic or legendary in art and literature; a form of realism. The word comes from Latin verus (true). Verism was often used by the Romans in marble sculptures of heads. Often described as “warts and all”, verism shows the imperfections of the subject, such as warts, wrinkles and furrows. (Wikipedia)

3. For decades, the Saturday Evening Post distinguished itself through its cover artwork. The most famous are by Norman Rockwell who created a total of 322 original covers for The Saturday Evening Post over 47 years. J.C. Leyendecker created over 320 covers, the most well known are his “New Year’s Baby” series which ran every year from 1908 to 1943.

4. In 2010, Picasso’s, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust sold for $106.5 million US to an anonymous buyer,  setting a record for the sale of any work at auction. One of a series of highly prized, intimate portraits Picasso painted in 1932 of his lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter. (DAF)

5. Italy has by far the most art crime, with approximately 20,000 art thefts reported each year.  Russia has the second most, with approximately 2000 art thefts reported per year. Italy’s government takes art crime very seriously and its Carabinieri are by far the most successful art squad worldwide, employing over 300 agents full time. (ARCA)