An order to draw a pile of Christmas cards is the first paid job 15-year-old Norman got from his neighbor. Soon after that young Rockwell had realized what was a true passion of his life. He dropped from school for National Academy of Design in New York. This is how Norman had begun his long way of the most well-known illustrator to be in the 20th century.
We are in Stockbridge Museum of Norman Rockwell in Massachusetts – the place where the artist lived and worked for a long time in his life. We only were planning to stop here for 15 min, due to the long trip ahead to Niagara Falls. But the staff had charmed us with the attention and such an eager will to guide us through the place that we couldn’t resist and stayed.
“The commonplaces of America to me are the richest subjects in art” used to say Norman. When you go through all of 321 Saturday Evening Post covers it is hard to stop smile. You get the feeling that targets of his art live next door or study next table, or play next house yard from you. So endearingly familiar! So brightly expressed! So easy to fall in love with!
So how did that work with models finding and painting for Norman? Living in a small town, the painter was well known. He could just come to the elementary school and look at kids play, choosing the one who would fit his requirements. Usually it would take about an hour of remaining still and they were paid from $5 to $10. Later when the photography have gotten accessible it became much easier to finding right model for Mr. Rockwell, no longer patience had been the crucial criteria.
One of lucky kids-models was Ed Clarck. Remember the painting where a state trooper having a chat with a little runaway in a dinner? That is him! This tiny boy is our Ed. Believe it or not, but this painting had become a defining image for the US police. They even used to give a card with the painting to retrained solders in order to remind that American police is really about listening and helping people.
Over Norman Rockwell’s life it is thousands of paintings had been done and millions of lives of others were touched.