Norman Rockwell & the Saturday Evening Post: The Later Years

by Norman Rockwell, Donald Robert Stoltz

Norman Rockwell's later years with The Saturday Evening Post started during the second World War and ended with his decision to leave the Curtis Publishing Company for other challenges. The 40's were a busy time for Rockwell and a time when he was to produce perhaps his finest and most famous works. Poignant scenes of American soldiers away from home and in joyous reunions with family and loved ones fill the covers of the war years. Rockwell's post-war covers provided a healing humor with scenes of everyday life as only he could depict it, and a record of America building and developing. The April Fool covers from this period were a source of great enjoyment to the artist himself as well as to his admiring public. Rockwell depicted the candidates in several presidential elections and met and painted portraits of many U.S. Presidents.

Rockwell ended his 47 year career with the Curtis Publishing Company in December 1963 with republication of his famous Kennedy portrait--his way of honoring the fallen president. In 1971, the Curtis Publishing Company honored Rockwell by publishing an issue of The Saturday Evening Post fully devoted to his life and times. In 1973, he received the prestigious Franklin Award from the printing industry, and later that year he accepted an award from the Boy Scouts of America for his outstanding contributions to scouting. For his eighty-second birthday in February 1976, Rockwell was again honored when the Curtis Center Museum of Norman Rockwell Art opened in Philadelphia's Curtis Publishing Building, the very building he had frequented during his years as foremost artist-illustrator for the Post. In 1977, a presidential citation, The Freedom Award, was given him by President Gerald Ford.

Genres: Art, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter (although his Rosie was reproduced less than others of the day), Saying Grace (1951), and the Four Freedoms series.

Reviews

[Marion · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful collection of Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers, mostly from the mid 40's to the 60's. Great backstories on how the pictures were conceived and who the models were. Very interesting.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the Post covers from Nov 27, 1943 through Summer 1971. 108 prints in all. Huge book with brief text on the left, and then full-size Post cover on the right. Arranged chronologically. This is a beautiful layout I'm glad I own (found in a used book store).