Norman Rockwell: A Life - Softcover

Claridge, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812967232 ISBN 13: 9780812967234

Publisher: Modern Library, 2003

Synopsis

Norman Rockwell’s hundreds of memorable covers for The Saturday Evening Post made him a twentieth-century American icon. However, because of the very popularity of his idealized depictions of middle-class life, his more serious paintings have been largely ignored, and he has often been deemed a mere illustrator, not a “real” artist.

In this, the first comprehensive biography of America’s most popular artist, Laura Claridge breaks new ground with her appreciative but clear-eyed view of Rockwell’s work—and his life. Based upon previously unpublished family archives and hundreds of interviews, this account reveals for the first time the deep disparity between the artist’s public image and his private life.

About this title

Review

Boy Scout campouts, backyard barbecues, Christmas trees, cheerful barbers: no artist quite converted slice-of-life realism into idealized portraits of the American dream as ably as Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), whose distinguished career art historian Laura Claridge captures just as ably in this welcome biography.

Rockwell, Claridge writes, had ambitions to be considered a great artist, but he abandoned them early on in the struggle to make a living through his abilities as an illustrator. He need not have worried about money quite as much as he did, Claridge suggests, for over his long career he produced more than 4,000 paintings and earned millions of dollars; still, as we learn, Rockwell was a complicated man, beset by all sorts of worries and more expressive on canvas than he ever was in the ordinary situations of life. His patriotic style evolved through his long engagement with the Saturday Evening Post, whose editor, George Horace Lorimer, used "as an instrument of Americanization," a means of establishing a national identity and ideals of "an American community made safe by a shared vision of right and wrong." In this and much else, Rockwell excelled, achieving early and lasting success though never earning much respect from critics and other arbiters of taste--even though, Claridge notes, Rockwell had all the requisite irony, and certainly all the necessary skills.

For the last few years, a new generation of critics has been reconsidering Rockwell's career and viewing his work more favorably. Claridge's gracefully written biography will give them still more reason to see him in a positive light. It will also afford those who already cherish his art new insight into an American master. --Gregory McNamee

From the Back Cover

“[An] excellent and thorough new biography.” —Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times

“Judicious, eminently readable, and astute . . . Claridge makes it her mission to demystify Rockwell’s misunderstood image and real persona. . . . Nuanced . . . persuasive . . . chock-full of charming anecdotes . . . This book deserves a wide readership.” —The Boston Globe (a Boston Globe Best Book of 2001)

“Impeccably researched and engagingly written.” —The Washington Post

“Claridge has done an extraordinary job; she is an exhaustive researcher and a gifted art historian.” —Entertainment Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0812967232
• ISBN 13: 9780812967234
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 592