Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell is best known for his cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post. He created the first of 321 covers in 1916, at the age of 18. The public loved his sense of humor and sentimental vignettes; however, critics did not take his art seriously until he focused on painting socially significant subjects. For example, in 1943, inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he painted the Four Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear. While they appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, it is more significant that they toured the United States and raised in excess of $130 million toward the war effort. In 1953 Norman, his wife Mary, and their three sons moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where there is now a museum created in his honor.

In his strongest socio-political painting, The Problem We All Live With, Rockwell made a compelling statement about Civil Rights. It appeared on the cover of Look magazine on January 14, 1964. He, like so many Americans, was inspired by the bravery of 6-year-old Ruby Bridges as the focus of integration in New Orleans' William Frantz Public School in 1960. Here the small African American girl is flanked by faceless U.S. marshals as she walks past a wall bearing the racist marks of a smashed tomato and a scrawled racial epithet. Although the painting generated hate mail for the artist, it became one of the most important pieces of his career. It was the first painting acquired by the Norman Rockwell Museum in 1975, and later hung in the White House during President Barack Obama's first term. Rockwell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977.