Lessons from Norman Rockwell
Every human being who has ever lived has been made in the image of God. Some people show that in a profound way. To me Norman Rockwell was one of them. On Sunday Ray, Mother, and I got to see many of his original paintings in an exhibition called “American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell.” I don’t have words to describe the experience.
As soon as I heard the exhibition was coming to The Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, I knew I wanted to take Mother, since she is both an artist and an art lover. Here she is on Sunday, looking great seven months after her stroke last June.
Norman Rockwell was an artist and a storyteller. The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, organized this exhibition. They did a wonderful job of telling his story through his art. I learned so much about an artist I have studied (I wrote a whole lesson about him in America the Beautiful) and whose art I had already seen at the Boy Scout museum when it was still in Kentucky (it is now in Irving, Texas) and at the museum in Stockbridge.
These are some of my impressions about Norman Rockwell from this exhibition:
Norman Rockwell cared about authenticity. He worked to make sure that his paintings accurately reflected the story he was telling.
Norman Rockwell followed through. In this exhibition were his 323 Saturday Evening Post covers. In addition to the covers, we saw several of the paintings from which those covers were created, plus many others he painted for other publications. When you see a Saturday Evening Post cover or a copy of a Norman Rockwell painting in a book or on a calendar, you see a picture printed on a piece of paper. When you see the original art for that illustration, you see an oil painting, many of which are more than four feet tall. Each painting represents working with human models, deciding what they would wear, showing them what facial expressions he wanted them to have, putting props in their proper places, making charcoal sketches, and so much more. The work involved from start to finish–that’s what I call follow-through!
Norman Rockwell was willing to do what others asked him to do. In the exhibition was a painting of a Boy Scout rescuing a little girl after a hurricane. In Rockwell’s first design, he drew the Boy Scout wearing long pants. Those pants were wet from the knee down because he was carrying the girl through water. The editorial staff at the Boy Scouts’ Boys’ Life magazine had him redo it because the wet pants didn’t look neat and Boy Scouts must always be neat. In the final painting, Rockwell painted the boy wearing short pants.
Norman Rockwell was willing to learn, and he respected the work of others. I am especially fond of Christmas Homecoming, which portrays a large family welcoming their son/grandson/big brother/nephew who has just arrived home from college. One of the people smiling in the welcoming group is Grandma Moses. Another is Rockwell himself.
One of my favorite parts of the exhibition was the short documentary film about Norman Rockwell, narrated by his son Peter. We heard Rockwell speak. We saw him at work. In one more way, we got to know the artist.
I highly recommend seeing this exhibition if you are near Nashville. The exhibition runs through February 9. Through the end of January, the tickets are half-price for adults; and children 18 and under are always free at the Frist. I can’t believe that Ray and I saw all of this for $5 each, and my senior mama got in for $3.50!
Norman Rockwell had a strong work ethic. He used it to give Americans a treasured history of ourselves and a picture of what life has been, is, and can be. Sadly, he did not see himself as a religious person; but he was still created in the image of God. I respect his trait of perseverance, a trait we all need and one of the most important things we can teach our children.
But the seed in the good soil,
these are the ones who have heard the word
in an honest and good heart,
and hold it fast,
and bear fruit with perseverance.
Luke 8:15, NASB