You can have any or all of the world's great artists past and present, but my all-time favorite is Norman Rockwell. A few days ago I stood in his small studio left just as he last saw it. It is just outside Stockbridge, Massachusetts, There were a few items hanging on the wall, along with his art library, easel and brushes. Cabinets surely held his paints. Our host in the little frame studio said he did not mind company and could paint as he conversed. And what an artist he was! In the gift shop you could purchase an autographed print of some of his works for $15,000.00. An original? No limit.
Rockwell began drawing sketches when a very young boy. By sixteen he was Art Editor for Boys Life, a popular magazine of the day. The Saturday Evening Post, a prestigious magazine for many years, hired him for a cover in 1916. It was called, "Mothers Day Off." It depicted a boy wearing a bowler (hat) and pushing a baby carriage. Standing nearby were a group of boys making fun of him. He would go on to do 321 covers for Saturday Evening Post and then others for Look Magazine in the fifties when he dealt with issues such as poverty and civil rights.
During World War II his paintings called "The Four Freedoms" toured the country raising 139 million dollars by the sale of War Bonds. (Do you remember: "Any bonds today? Bonds are freedom. That's what I'm selling, any bonds today?") In 1977 President Gerald Ford awarded Rockwell with the Presidential Medal Of Freedom. At the peak of his career he was the best known artist in the world. In 1953 he moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His museum and studio are near there. Stockbridge looks like a picture postcard. In fact it is! Guess who painted it? About all we could afford to purchase were some post cards and calendars, but the images of many of his classic drawings will always remain in my mind and heart. I especially love the one where a rancher- father and dog are at the train station to see the man's son off to college. The old truck is rusty and the man's face is weather-beaten. They aren't talking. Just thinking while they wait for the train. It made me cry.