Norman Rockwell. 1894 – 1978. Illustrator.

Norman Rockwell was the most famous American artist of the last century. First of all, he considered himself an illustrator. He painted hundreds of pictures for books, magazines, posters and calendars. His long career spanned the days of horses and buggies to the launch of space shuttles. Rockwell's work graced the cover of the famous Saturday Evening Post for 50 years.

Rockwell was taught that illustration is the artist's words on paper. He chose a story about the American dream. The story he told the world in great detail was about everyday life. His paintings often idealized the world; he painted with warmth and humor. Looking at his paintings, Americans feel nostalgic for the good old America.

early years

Norman Percival Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894, a few blocks west of New York's Central Park. He was the second child in the family, his older brother Jarvis was fond of sports. Norman quickly realized that he could compensate for his brother's lack of athleticism by drawing his friends. He was taught drawing skills by his father, who worked in a textile factory. In the evenings, they copied simple pictures that they found in magazines. Norman Hill's grandfather was a poor artist who emigrated to the United States from England. He did not succeed in art; he painted simple portraits and landscapes, and sometimes worked as a painter. But Norman was fascinated by his grandfather's work, especially the attention to detail.

The Rockwell family moved to the suburbs of New York in 1903. The family began a tradition of evening reading together, when the father read stories aloud to the whole family in the living room before bed. Charles Dickens was Norman's favorite writer, and he often sketched characters while his father's gentle baritone voice described them. So Norman stopped copying other people's work and began using his imagination to create his own paintings.

School

During his freshman year of high school, Norman decided that he wanted to become an illustrator. He earned a few dollars doing small errands and paid for classes at art school. He traveled to New York twice a week to attend classes at the School of Fine and Applied Arts. At the age of 15, Norman left school to study at the National Academy of Design and then at the Art Students League with George Bridgman and Thomas Fogarty. He was a diligent and diligent student with a good sense of humor.

Breakthrough

In 1912, Norman received his first commission to illustrate a book. The book was called Tell Why: Stories from Mother Nature. In 1913, at age 19, he became editor of the official magazine for the Boy Scouts of America, Boys' Life. Becoming known as the "boy illustrator", Roxwell worked for several years illustrating youth magazines.

In 1916, Rockwell moved to an adult audience when he was commissioned to cover the Saturday Evening Post. This was the first of more than three hundred paintings that made the magazine and the artist famous. Having received a lot of money, Norman proposed to his girlfriend Irene O'Conor. They married in the fall of that year and moved to a new home in New Rochelle, New York.

Rockwell continued to use children as his main inspiration, but he looked at them from a different perspective. He entertained adults with the antics of kids that evoke nostalgia for the joys of childhood. He painted children from an adult point of view, presenting childhood as a carefree and easy time.

War

6 months after the wedding, in April 1917, American President Woodrow Wilson signed a decree starting war between the United States and Imperial Germany. An idealist, Rockwell joined the army dreaming of becoming a hero for his country. Thin and frail, he is enlisted at the Charleston Navy Yard and forced to work as an artist on land and at sea. With plenty of free time, Norman pursued a career as an illustrator, receiving commissions from the Saturday Evening Post and others, earning more money than an admiral.

The war ended in November 1918, and Rockwell received his discharge by painting a portrait of his commander. The work that befell the young artist made him rich and famous. The 1920s became the Jazz Age and a boom period for American life. Rockwell had the opportunity to travel to Europe and South America, he became popular and a welcome guest in high circles. In 1926, the Saturday Evening Post published the first color cover of Rockwell's work. In 1929, the American economy fractured, as did Norman's marriage.

A new beginning

In 1930, Rockwell married Mary Rhodes Barstow. Their first son was born in 1932, and the other two by 1936. Rockwell began illustrating one of his favorite authors, Mark Twain. Illustrations of the ordinary life of two simple American boys, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, are so in the style of Norman.

In 1939, Rockwell moved his family to a farm in Arlington, Vermont - an ideal place to raise three boys. Neighborhood children became wonderful models for Norman's illustrations. He painted every day, except for Christmas, when he only worked half the day.

The early 1940s were a year of change, even in a quiet place like Arlington. An increasing number of young people began to enroll in the Armed Forces. The Second World War began unexpectedly. Rockwell began sketching neighborhood boys who became boys in uniform. An idea came to him - to trace the history of a rookie boy who entered the service. Illustrations of a character named Willie Gillies began to appear on magazine covers. The series of drawings came to an abrupt end when Rockwell's young model was enlisted as a pilot in the US Navy.

Patriotism

Rockwell was looking for an opportunity to make a personal contribution to war propaganda. He painted many paintings, including the famous "Rosie the Riveter" for the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell did not glorify murder, so the only battle scene was painted for the Department of War Weapons. It was a dramatic poster showing a machine gunner in a tattered uniform stranded in the line of fire. The reel of his cartridge belt was completely empty. The caption read: "Let's give him enough and on time." In his works, Rockwell tried to tell America that Americans fight in war out of a sense of patriotism. These paintings were not for entertainment, their purpose was to inspire.

On January 6, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed the values ​​of America and the world in his annual State of the Union address. The passage later known as the "four freedoms" greatly inspired Norman:

First freedom- freedom of speech and freedom of expression in any part of the world.

Second freedom- the freedom of every person to profess his faith in his own way in any part of the world.

Third freedom- freedom from want, which in simpler language means economic agreements that provide each country with a healthy, peaceful life for its people in any part of the world.

Fourth freedom- freedom from fear, which in simpler terms means the general reduction of armaments to such a level and in such a manner that no country will be able to commit an act of physical aggression against its neighbor in any part of the world.

Rockwell was so inspired by the speech that he offered the Four Freedoms series of paintings to the US Government for free. His offer was rejected, but the Saturday Evening Post commissioned the paintings for its magazine. They were to become full-page illustrations in the magazine, visually accompanying an article about each of the 4 freedoms. Rockwell chose to interpret each freedom through the example of his Vermont neighbors who were “free” in their homes, churches, and congregations. His genius transformed every “freedom” into a simple metaphor, while the world was in a fever with the threat of losing those very freedoms.

After 10 months of painstaking work, 4 canvases were completed. The response to the work was overwhelming. Millions of copies, US Government uses paintings as propaganda during World War II, exhibition of paintings takes place in 16 cities, copies are ordered by millions of people. The popularity of the paintings was considered a huge contribution of the front to the war.

Trouble

In the spring of 1943, Rockwell's studio burns to the ground, taking his life's work with it. The painting “Religious Freedom,” which he had sent to Philadelphia a few days earlier, is also lost. For Mary and Norman, this was a sign of a change of scenery. The family moves to West Arlington. Rockwell has a fire extinguisher in his new studio.

When the war ended, Norman returned to painting neighbors, presidential candidates and movie stars. The Rockwell children went off to college and in 1953, Mary and Norman moved again, this time to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In the 1950s, a series of works about presidential candidates were published, and the decade ended with the tragic death of Norman's beloved wife, Mary.

In 1960, Rockwell again turned to a serious topic. Concerned about the growing nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, he looked for a way to help and decided that he would draw the "golden rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you." He based it on an old, unfinished charcoal drawing for the United Nations. Over the next five months, the muse did not leave the artist. The film appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on April 1, 1961, and received international acclaim. The painting depicts people of all ages and nationalities, their faces turned to the future, they are all focused on achieving a common goal - the benefit of humanity. Realizing the international significance of Rockwell's work, the US State Department is producing a half-hour film about Rockwell's work. It has been translated into 70 languages ​​for showing abroad.

At the end of May 1961, a high school dropout was invited to the University of Massachusetts to receive the title of Doctor of Fine Arts.

See you

Rockwell met and married Molly Punderson in 1961, and the two traveled the world. Inspired by Molly, new markets and changing times, Rockwell used his art to address a wide range of social issues in the '70s. In addition to civil rights violations and poverty, he looked to the Peace Corps and the Space Age for inspiration.

Norman Rockwell died on November 8, 1978 at the age of eighty-four. In his 1978 book A Portrait of Rockwell: An Intimate Biography, author Donald Walton asked Rockwell the secret of his longevity. Rockwell: “Well, maybe the secret of many artists who live so long is that each of their paintings represents a new adventure. They always look forward and reach for something new and interesting. The secret is to not look back."

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Norman Rockwell is a cult artist of the 20th century, on whose illustrations more than one generation of children grew up. He didn’t just draw, he told entire stories and always portrayed characters with unusual warmth and sympathy, seasoning his paintings with a fair amount of humor.

website collected 20 paintings in which the master told the world stories from everyday life in great detail.

Fugitive, 1958

In his paintings, Rockwell depicted an ideal version of the world, filled with kindness and warmth. Typically, scenes where children run away from home should be disturbing and disturbing. But not here - a little fugitive who finds himself in a bar is surrounded by care and protected. The boy himself seems to be under guard in the center of the triangle - on the left a policeman is leaning towards him in a fatherly manner, in the center the bartender is smiling good-naturedly, and on the right, judging by the empty coffee cup, another kind man was sitting not so long ago. In the artist's world, no child is in danger, and for a police officer there is no greater task than talking to a young fugitive and convincing him to return home.

Rosie the Riveter, 1943

In the United States, during World War II, a national campaign was launched to encourage women who had never worked before to join the workforce. They mastered completely new areas of work, taking the traditional places of men who went to the front. Rockwell's painting clearly shows that working for a woman, even in a factory, does not require giving up femininity. Rosie, whom we see in the picture, is determined to contribute to victory in the war. This is what made “Rosie the Riveter” a true US cultural icon.

The Problem We All Live With, 1964

A vivid illustration of the emergence of racial equality in America in the 60s. The heroine of the film is a 6-year-old African-American girl Ruby Bridges, one of the first black students who were allowed to study at a “white” school, accompanied by employees of the US Marshals Service. Behind the inscriptions “KKK”, the insulting “Niger” and the trace of the tomato thrown into Ruby are visible.

Table prayer, 1951

This work is imbued with the spirit of post-war America. With this illustration, the artist wanted to answer many questions of Americans: how, after going through violence and cruelty, to maintain faith in kindness and where to get the strength to look into the future with hope? The idea for the plot appeared thanks to one of the readers: before her eyes, a woman with a little mischievous boy ran into the cafe and, not at all embarrassed by the crowded hall, they froze for several minutes in prayer. Impressed by the story, Rockwell painted this scene as authentically as if he had seen it himself.

This work became the most expensive work of American realist art - in 2013 it was sold for $46 million.

Moving from home, 1954

“I wanted to express what a father feels when his children leave home,” Rockwell said of the illustration. Father and son sit on a bench waiting for the train to take their son to college. The son enthusiastically awaits the arrival of the train, which will take him to a new, adult life. The father experiences exactly the opposite feeling - he visibly droops, clutching an unlit cigarette and hat in his hands. The father has no choice but to wait for the inevitable arrival of the train, which will take his son far from his home.

Girl with a black eye, 1953

Judging by the girl’s joyful face, we can confidently say that she emerged victorious from the fight. Now she is waiting for a call to the school principal. It is hardly possible to determine how the fight started and who initiated it, who exactly was defeated, but one thing is obvious: the other one looks much worse than she. Look at the face of the woman who looks out of the office with sympathy - it is probably her teacher.

Election Day, 1948

November 2, 1948 is the day of the US presidential election. The main contenders are Harry Truman and the famous New York State Governor Thomas Dewey. No one believed that Democrat Truman could defeat the flamboyant and beloved Republican Dewey. The wife in the picture, an ordinary American, wants a Truman that is simple and clear to her. And the husband believes that smart Dewey is exactly what the country needs. When election night ended, it turned out that Truman had simply crushed Dewey. When the shock passed, analysts determined that ordinary Americans - workers, clerks and small shopkeepers - voted for Truman.

Saleswoman on Christmas Eve, 1947

Rockwell's paintings are real mini-stories about everyday life. Sometimes you even get the feeling that the illustrations are literally copied from our lives. If you look closely, the hands on the saleswoman's watch show 17:05 - we are sure she is happy that this working day has finally come to an end.

Marriage license, 1955

The sign on the door, “Marriage License,” begins to tell the story. This scene is full of contrasts, like many of the artist’s paintings. Bright daylight streaming through the window illuminates the old, dark room. Compare how focused the young couple is and how out of place the bored elderly clerk seems here. God knows how much evidence he gave out in that shabby room. However, the clerk is at ease here - next to him is his cat, a heater and a blooming geranium on the window, which he clearly takes care of. The calendar on the wall shows the wedding date - June 11, 1955.

Scout came to the rescue, 1941

Norman Rockwell didn't just paint American life. He preached universal human values, he raised hope and faith in the national idea, because a smile and good nature saved us in difficult times of war, and mutual assistance and decency came to the fore. He said: “There is no place for dirt and ugliness in my paintings. I paint life the way I would like it to be.”

Good Friends, 1927

The artist invites us to see the touching world of children, real joy and spontaneity. The light and bright painting of Norman Rockwell warms and reminds us of the main values ​​of our lives.

Soda, 1953

Rockwell took this idea from the stories of his son, who worked in a summer cafe. Young ladies liked to come to the cafe, obviously not for soda and ice cream. The plump guy in the corner of the picture looks at the seller and his fans offendedly: “What does he have (besides ice cream) that I don’t have?” This charming good nature, characteristic of Rockwell's paintings, is complemented by details to which the artist was especially meticulous: the wooden floor behind the counter, the untidy dishes on the counter, or the reflection of the sugar bowl in the chrome napkin holder.

Four Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, 1943

Rockwell's most famous work is his series of paintings, The Four Freedoms, inspired by Roosevelt's speech on the rights we now take for granted. The story for Free Speech was based on a real incident: “I suddenly remembered how Jim Edgerton stood up at a town meeting and said something that everyone in attendance didn’t like. But he was given the opportunity to speak. Nobody told him to shut up. “Oh God,” I thought. - Here it is. Freedom of speech"".

Four Freedoms: Freedom from Want, 1943

“When I grew up and discovered that the world was not such a pleasant place as I thought, I unconsciously decided that even if it was not a perfect world, it should be painted perfectly by me in my paintings, in which there would be no drunken tramps or evil mothers, on the contrary, only have kind parents and happy children,” said Norman Rockwell.

Christmas meeting, 1948

One of the artist's most famous works is about Christmas. To make this picture truly alive, he depicted his own family - we can see him on the right side with the same pipe in his teeth. In the center is his adult son, who returned home for the Christmas holidays into his mother’s strong embrace, because communication with children and grandchildren is the main joy for elderly parents.

Rockwell Norman (1894-1978) was an American illustrator and artist, popular in his homeland, the United States of America. For almost five decades it has been a mirror of American culture.

Childhood

Rockwell Norman was born in New York. His ancestors moved to America in search of a better life from Somerset in Britain and were among the first settlers in Windsor

The bright boy's parents transferred him from high school to art school when he was fourteen years old. At the age of 15, fame came to him - he drew cards for Christmas. A variety of themes: preparing for Christmas in the kitchen, family hugs when meeting, depicting happy, prosperous people and children - brought considerable popularity to the teenager.

Next, Rockwell Norman studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. At the age of 18, he was already illustrating Tales of Mother Nature. After this, he was invited to make sketches of the boys' lives. He succeeded and at the age of 19 became the art editor of the Boys' Life magazine, which was intended for the Boy Scouts of America. So, he spent three years drawing covers for magazines.

Independent work

At twenty-one, Rockwell Norman created his own studio. Orders were not long in coming. He created covers for the weekly Saturday Evening Magazine for 50 years, believing that it more accurately reflected the lives of Americans than any other publication. The artist got married in New York, but the marriage did not last long. Saddened and depressed, he goes to stay with a friend in California, where he meets and marries Mary Barstow. A young couple returns to the New York suburb of New Rochelle. They have three children. This is the 30-40 years - the time of Rockwell's most fruitful work. In 1939, the family moved to Arlington. There, the theme of small town life will appear in his works.

This could be, for example, an office where both an elderly man and a young woman work at typewriters. Life is in full swing around them, a porter enters the room with a box, someone is rearranging tables, but the couple is working enthusiastically at the machines.

World War II and later

The artist really wanted to be drafted into the army and defend the world from Nazism. But they didn’t take him the first time - he turned out to be too thin. I had to go on a diet that consisted of donuts and bananas. This only partially helped. He was called up, but was not sent to the front line. In 1943, Norman was inspired by Roosevelt's speech, in which the president expressed 4 principles of universal rights: freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and a country free from fear. These themes deeply affected both the citizen and the artist named Norman Rockwell. The paintings were created quickly. The artist himself considered the work “Freedom of Speech” to be the best.

The canvas depicts a simple ordinary American who stands on the podium, and next to him sits and, what is important, listens to him, a wealthy audience, judging by his clothes. The painting "Freedom from Want" depicts an average American family gathered around a table in a bright, clean, tidy room. The table is beautifully set, with fruit and dessert already on it, and the hostess is looking for a place to put a large oval dish with turkey. That same year, there was a fire in his studio that destroyed both paintings and historical props. Therefore, the fire divided his work into two parts. Now the artist works only with modern material, where only characters and situations in tune with the time were presented. In 1959, his wife died suddenly of a heart attack. Grief stopped his work.

Further life and creativity

In 1961, Rockwell married for the third time. By this time, he and his family were living in the town of Stockbridge. Rockwell was a prolific artist. During his life he wrote more than four thousand works. These are paintings, calendars, magazine covers, illustrations for fiction, advertising for Coca-Cola, film posters, portraits and much more.

An interesting generalized portrait of students, made graphically. The good, intelligent faces of girls and boys immediately evoke sympathy for the younger generation.

The portrait of President Nixon shows the statesman not in ceremonial surroundings or in family life, but against a vague brownish background, which, however, does not create gloom. Before the viewer is a person open to everyone, who will listen to every request addressed to him.

The painting “Matthew Brady Photographs Lincoln” was created in 1975, when the artist was already approaching the end of his career. Unfortunately, he was not successful with this historical theme. The image looks too much like a holiday card.

In the last years of his life, he raised such serious topics as racism. The film "The Problem We All Live With" examines the issue of bringing white and black children together in the same school. A black girl is led to school by security guards as the walls are covered in racist graffiti.

Norman Rockwell is an artist whose work is perceived ambiguously by art critics. Most tend to think that it is too “sweet” and sentimental and idealizes American life.

Conclusion

In 1977, Rockwell was awarded the Medal of Freedom. And in 1978, the artist died at the age of 84. Life was spent in work and ordinary household chores, but his biography showed that he had no problems with Norman Rockwell; financially he was very successful.

Rockwell is one of the fathers of visual identification for some beloved fictional characters, such as Santa Claus. He was a fantastically prolific artist, leaving more than 4,000 paintings, illustrations and other original works. Norman Rockwell's paintings are renowned for their classic aesthetics, clarity, and exemplary representation of the everyday.

Norman Rockwell was born in 1894 in New York and felt a passion for art from a very early age. He attended art school until he was 14, and then studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. Rockwell used techniques learned during his studies throughout his career.

The artist's first success came at the tender age of 16, when he received an order for four Christmas cards. His career as an independent artist and illustrator soon began.

At the age of 22, Norman Rockwell drew his first cover for The Saturday Post magazine, with which he collaborated for 47 years. Over almost five decades, the artist created 321 covers for this publication.
The 1930s and 1940s are considered the most fruitful in the creative path of the American illustrator. During this period, Rockwell married a second time, started a family and moved to a small town in Vermont. The city of Arlington inspired the artist to create the most famous everyday scenes of American life.

Rockwell spent the years of World War II in labor. He was deeply inspired by the cause and the American President Franklin Roosevelt, which in 1943 led to the release of the famous series of paintings called "American Freedoms" ("Four Freedoms"). The works, which were consistently published in the Saturday Evening Post, gained instant fame. A tour of the United States followed. The exhibitions managed to earn more than $130 million, which went to the needs of the military industry.

After his incredible success, Norman Rockwell lost his treasured studio in a fire that same year. He and his family moved to Massachusetts, and in 1953 his wife died suddenly. However, in 1960, the artist pulled himself together and, with the help of his son, published an autobiographical book, My Adventures as an Illustrator.

In 1961, the artist married for the third time and began collaborating with Look magazine. A decade of work with the new publishing house was marked by socially engaged films that raised issues of civil rights and poverty, as well as the debut of space flights.

Norman Rockwell received the highest civilian honor in the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he was awarded in 1977. The artist died in 1978 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 84, ending a long and amazing life.

Most of Norman Rockwell's paintings are in public collections across America, but many were destroyed by fires and other disasters. In addition to works on canvas, he illustrated books, calendars, postcards and other publications in a very recognizable and eloquent style, awakening warm feelings and a familiar mood in the viewer. Norman Rockwell's paintings are as iconic as their artist.

Norman Rockwell paintings:

"A boy and a girl look at the moon", 1926

A romantic representation of the love of two children looking at the moon. This is a typical early Norman Rockwell work. The illustration is filled with sentimental idealism and perhaps borders on kitsch.

"Santa Reads the Mail", 1935

Another "everyday" scene. This time the main character is an imaginary Santa Claus, but he is presented so realistically that the picture emanates the irresistible magic of the Christmas holidays.

"Freedom of Speech", 1943

One of the works included in the American Freedoms series, inspired by Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 speech. This painting was first published in the Saturday Evening Post and then in an accompanying essay. Norman Rockwell considered it the best of the series, along with the film “Freedom of Faith.”

"Freedom of Faith", 1943

The power of painting lies in the close-up portrait, the archetypal symbols, the distinctly committed expressions. She defends the right of every person to freedom of religion.

"Freedom from Want", 1943

The third painting from the “American Freedoms” series. An image of a scene of people having dinner with family and friends on Thanksgiving Day. The painting is considered one of the most iconic paintings representing the Thanksgiving holiday.

"Freedom from Fear", 1943

The last of the four freedoms. It reflects the experiences associated with the Second World War. Parents carefully put their children to bed as Nazi Germany's strategic bombing of Great Britain rages on.

"Art Critic", 1955

Norman Rockwell gives a humorous portrayal of an art expert who is very concerned about trying to confirm the authenticity of a work. He looks awkward, boring and funny.

“Triple self-portrait”, 1960

The most famous self-portrait of the famous artist. It covers all three of his most famous personality traits - humor, humility and his own calling - with lots of details drawn from his everyday life.

Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894, New York, New York - November 8, 1978, Stockbridge, Massachusetts) was an American artist and illustrator.

Biography of Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell was born in 1894 in New York, at the age of 14 he entered The New York School of Art (formerly The Chase School of Art), and two years later he moved to the National Academy of Design.

Very soon, however, he transferred to the creative group Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman.

Fogarty's instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commission. From Bridgman he learned techniques that he relied on throughout his long career.

Rockwell's work

Success came early to Rockwell. He drew his first commission, four Christmas cards, at the age of fifteen. While still a teenager, he was hired as the lead artist for Boys' Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America. Around the same period, Rockwell began a successful career as a freelance artist, constantly receiving numerous commissions to illustrate for youth magazines.

When Rockwell turned 21, he organized his own studio.

About a year later, Rockwell created his first magazine cover for The Saturday Evening Post. The illustrator always highly valued this magazine, speaking of it as the most accurate mirror of American life.

The period of the thirties and forties turned out to be the most fruitful in the illustrator’s career.

Together with his wife and three sons, Rockwell moved from New York to the small town of Arlington in Vermont. The change of place of residence also affected Rockwell’s works: he began to pay more and more attention to depicting American life in small towns. In 1943, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt's speech to Congress, Rockwell created his famous Four Freedoms series of paintings.

In 1953, Rockwell moved with his family to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he continued to work tirelessly, creating numerous illustrations, posters, advertising works and more. In 1960, thanks to long and hard work, in which Rockwell was assisted by his son Thomas, the artist published an autobiographical book entitled My Adventures as an Illustrator. The cover of the book is decorated with one of Rockwell's most famous works - a triple self-portrait depicting him at work.

In the early seventies, Rockwell entrusted his work to the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society, which later became a museum (see Norman Rockwell Museum) named after him.

And in 1970, the artist received the most honorable award: the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his vivid and characteristic images of American life.

His painting "Saying Grace" was sold at Sotheby's for $46 million on December 4, 2013 in New York, becoming the most expensive piece of American realist art ever sold at auction.

The most famous paintings of the artist

• Scout at Ship's Wheel (1913)
• Santa and Scouts in Snow (1913)
• Boy and Baby Carriage (1916)

• Circus Barker and Strongman (1916)
• Gramps at the Plate (1916)
• Redhead Loves Hatty Perkins (1916)
• People in a Theater Balcony (1916)
• Cousin Reginald Goes to the Country (1917)
• Santa and Expense Book (1920)
• Mother Tucking Children into Bed (1921)
• No Swimming (1921)
• American Freedoms (eng. The Four Freedoms) (1943)
• Freedom of Speech (1943)
• Freedom to Worship (1943)
• Freedom from Want (1943)
• Freedom from Fear (1943)
• Rosie the Riveter (1943)
• Going and Coming (1947)
• Bottom of the Sixth (1949)
• Saying Grace (1951)
• Girl at Mirror (1954)
• Breaking Home Ties (1954)
• The Marriage License (1955)
• The Scoutmaster (1956)
• Triple Self-Portrait (1960)
• Golden Rule (1961)
• The Problem We All Live With (1964)
• New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967)
• The Rookie
• Judy Garland (1969)
• Russian schoolchildren (eng. The Russian Schoolroom) (1967)