Art Chowder November | December, Issue 24 | Page 34

R
ockwell always called
himself an illustrator. To become
a great illustrator like his hero
Howard Pyle was his ambition
from an early age. He dropped
out of high school to attend art
school. When he entered the Art
Students League in 1911 there
was no distinction between an
artist and an illustrator; whether
producing paintings in their own
right or for print, all received the
same, rigorous classical training
in drawing, especially the
human figure, under the eminent
anatomist George Bridgman. “I
entered Bridgman’s class raw;
I came out browned to a turn.” 2
In other words, Rockwell knew
the anatomical structure and
dynamics of the human body.
Drawing it had become second
nature, a foundation that lies
behind his exceptional ability to
portray the unending variety of
human character.
In 1916 he began doing covers
for The Saturday Evening Post,
but during a period of self-doubt
in the early ‘20s, the specter of
Modern Art shadowed him. He
went to Paris to try getting on
board with the new trends and
bought some Picassos to bring
home for inspiration. When
the Post refused his new-style
cover ideas, Rockwell decided
to continue what he was good at:
portraying the “common man,”
with humor and good will, in the
often overlooked circumstances
of everyday life. The issue
behind his temporary identity
crisis can be put another way:
modernism and illustration don’t
mix.
34
ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
The Country Gentleman
was an American
agricultural magazine that
ran from 1831-1955. It was
acquired in 1911 by the
Curtis Publishing Company,
parent company to the The
Saturday Evening Post.
Rockwell did a series of
seven covers featuring the
mostly misadventures of
Cousin Reginald, a well-
to-do city boy who came to
visit his farm boy cousins.
Rockwell took an idea from
one of his heroes of the
Golden Age of illustration,
Howard Pyle. In “The
Fate of a Treasure Town,”
Pyle pictures the loot
divided among the pirates.
Rockwell’s modified
Pyle’s postures so that
Reginald was his country
pirate cousins’ captive,
a play upon kids’ natural
disposition for playacting
and persecuting other
kids they deemed alien
or weaker. “Children are
heartless sometimes.” NR
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
“Cousin Reginald Plays Pirates”
1917, oil on canvas on board
30” x 30”, signed lower right
The Country Gentleman November 3, 1917 cover
Without the awkward
title this quite beautiful
painting suggests a moving
incident in a story about
a young woman and her
grandmother. Here’s how
the light bulb ad copy reads.
“The strains of the music
still sing in her ears; her
pulses beat to its rhythm,
her cheeks are aglow —
flushed and happy, she
slips into her mother’s
room, to live through the
evening again. They are
very rich, those after-hours,
when the hearts of mothers
and daughters draw close,
and sons discover that
fathers are pals. A friendly
lamp invites confidences.
In every such family party it
plays its silent part.”
Norman Rockwell
“The Party After The Party”
1922, oil on canvas
30” x 26”, signed lower right
Edison Mazda advertisement
The Ladies’ Home Journal June 1922, p. 87
The Ladies Home Journal
was also a member of the
same parent company as
the The Saturday Evening
Post.