The Utopianism of Norman Rockwell
One of the criticism against Norman Rockwell is that the majority of his works he created are too neat, too sweet, and entirely too rural and old-fashioned. For example, in his one of his works entitled Time to Re-tire: Sleeping Sheriff (Image 4), an advertisement that Rockwell illustrated for Fisk Tire Company, we can see that Rockwell chose to use a sheriff to represent retirement. Though this is only an advertisement, and the artist was only trying to use the double meaning of the word “tire” and “re-tire”, the choice of using a sheriff to present this image indicates that the artist actually thinks the society that he is living in is safe enough that people do not need protections from the sheriff. On the …show more content…
Both Rockwell’s parents were very artistic, he was influenced by his mother, Nancy’s artistic forbears and imaginary illnesses; his father, Waring, often spent his evenings copying illustrations out of magazines. That was the “Golden Age” of illustration, under the influences of his parents and many “superstars” of the illustration industry such as Charles Dana Gibson, Harrison Fisher, Howard Pyle, and N.C Wyeth, Rockwell started to drew alongside his father. He was delighted in those nights because he was drawing in the mood of warmth, quiet, privacy, and domestic contentment.
Another thing that made Rockwell’s artworks look so happy and energetic is the outdoor activities and vacations that he enjoyed with his family when he was young. Rockwell loved freedom and the joy of being real, he was the outdoors kind of boy, and this became his subject of many of his early works.
As we can see, the childhood of Norman Rockwell was full of happiness and he was surrounded by artistic influences, one’s childhood can determine their views towards the world, I believe that this is one of the important reason why Rockwell saw the world as sweet and
One of the criticism against Norman Rockwell is that the majority of his works he created are too neat, too sweet, and entirely too rural and old-fashioned. For example, in his one of his works entitled Time to Re-tire: Sleeping Sheriff (Image 4), an advertisement that Rockwell illustrated for Fisk Tire Company, we can see that Rockwell chose to use a sheriff to represent retirement. Though this is only an advertisement, and the artist was only trying to use the double meaning of the word “tire” and “re-tire”, the choice of using a sheriff to present this image indicates that the artist actually thinks the society that he is living in is safe enough that people do not need protections from the sheriff. On the …show more content…
Both Rockwell’s parents were very artistic, he was influenced by his mother, Nancy’s artistic forbears and imaginary illnesses; his father, Waring, often spent his evenings copying illustrations out of magazines. That was the “Golden Age” of illustration, under the influences of his parents and many “superstars” of the illustration industry such as Charles Dana Gibson, Harrison Fisher, Howard Pyle, and N.C Wyeth, Rockwell started to drew alongside his father. He was delighted in those nights because he was drawing in the mood of warmth, quiet, privacy, and domestic contentment.
Another thing that made Rockwell’s artworks look so happy and energetic is the outdoor activities and vacations that he enjoyed with his family when he was young. Rockwell loved freedom and the joy of being real, he was the outdoors kind of boy, and this became his subject of many of his early works.
As we can see, the childhood of Norman Rockwell was full of happiness and he was surrounded by artistic influences, one’s childhood can determine their views towards the world, I believe that this is one of the important reason why Rockwell saw the world as sweet and