Norman Rockwell
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REVIEW BY PAT H. BROESKE
His name summons up nostalgic, heart-tugging images of a lost America. During his six-decade career, Norman Rockwell turned out a staggering 4,000 pieces. But being prolific and well-known are not the same as being critically hailed. In Norman Rockwell, author Laura Claridge -- biographer of artist Tamara De Lempicka -- attempts to give Rockwell his due. Utilizing family documents and personal interviews, she also explores the Rockwell dichotomy. According to this sprawling (500-plus pages) biography, Rockwell was far more complex than his illustrations. The man whose works celebrate robust boyhood spent his childhood as the proverbial wimp. As for those depictions of quintessential family life, his own household was anything but. A far-from-perfect parent (he preferred work over family time), Rockwell had three marriages. The first was a Jazz Age union, complete with mutual dalliances. His sons by his second wife learned of that marriage in a published article about their father. That Rockwell hid and later downplayed this 14-year chapter in his life is startling. Then again, he was a man who was able to literally brush away and recreate those aspects of life he found unappealing. In reassessing Rockwell's art, Claridge describes the genesis and development of certain works. Sometimes overprotective of her subject, with a rather academic writing style, she is most adroit at discussing Rockwell in relation to the early twentieth century art world. Born in 1894, Norman grew up during the Golden Age of Illustration, an astounding period that saw artists such as Howard Chandler Christy and Winslow Homer popularized via detailed illustrations for articles and advertisements. When the era flickered to a close in the early 1930s, it was awash in brilliant colors -- thanks in large part to Maxfield Parrish. At 18 Rockwell was hired to illustrate a series of stories. Then came an assignment for Boy's Life -- the first of more than 400 illustrations for the magazine. But it was his covers for the Saturday Evening Post that established him as the country's leading illustrator. While some "modern" artists reached for disquieting themes, Rockwell did the opposite. By relying on the distant past and romanticized heartland settings, he created works that comforted rather than challenged. That remains his legacy. Claridge's book -- the first serious, in-depth biography of Rockwell -- is a groundbreaker. Though the portrait it paints of the artist is at times a disturbing one, this volume is a must-read for any Rockwell fan. Pat H. Broeske, a field and segment producer for true crime TV programs, has co-authored biographies of Howard Hughes and Elvis Presley.
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