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February 2011

Brooklyn Museum
Norman Rockwell:
Behind the Camera
Robert E. Blum Gallery,
1st Floor - until 10 April
Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, March 4, 1944

Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, March 4, 1944
Norman Rockwell (American, 1894–1978) Oil on canvas 43 x 33 in. Collection of the Brooklyn Museum Gift of the artist, 69.8 ©1944SEPS: Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis

Composite Image

Composite Image
Gene Pelham (American, 1909–2004) Photograph for The Tattoo Artist, 1944 Study for The Saturday Evening Post, March 4, 1944 11 ¼ x 8 ¾ in. Norman Rockwell Museum Archival Collections Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, Illinois

Photograph for The Tattoo Artist, 1944

Photograph for The Tattoo Artist, 1944
Gene Pelham (American, 1909–2004) Study for The Saturday Evening Post, March 4, 1944 11 ¼ x 8 ¾ in. Norman Rockwell Museum Archival Collections Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, Illinois

Photograph for The Tattoo Artist, 1944

Photograph for The Tattoo Artist, 1944
Gene Pelham (American, 1909–2004) Study for The Saturday Evening Post, March 4, 1944 11 ¼ x 8 ¾ in. Norman Rockwell Museum Archival Collections Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, Illinois

The Dugout, 1948

The Dugout, 1948
Norman Rockwell (American, 1894–1978) Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, September 4, 1948 Transparent and opaque watercolor over graphite on two sheets of conjoined cream, moderately thick, moderately textured wove paper 19 x 17 13/16 in. Collection of the Brooklyn Museum Gift of Kenneth Stuart, 71.124 ©1948SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis

Bill Scovill and Norman Rockwell, circa 1962

Bill Scovill and Norman Rockwell, circa 1962
Louis Lamone (American, 1918–2007) 11 ¼ x 8 ¼ in. Norman Rockwell Museum Archival Collections Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, Illinois

NEW YORK. Beginning in the late 1930s, Norman Rockwell adopted photography as a tool to bring his illustration ideas to life in studio sessions. Working as a director, Rockwell carefully staged his photographs, selecting props and locations, choosing his models, and orchestrating every last detail. He created an abundance of photographs for each new subject, sometimes capturing complete compositions and other times combining separate pictures of individual elements. These photographs were the focus of a recently completed two-year project at the Norman Rockwell Museum, which preserved and digitized almost 20,000 negatives. For the first time, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera presents these study photographs alongside his paintings, drawings, and related tear sheets to offer a fascinating look at the artist’s process.
Photograph for The Dugout, 1948

Photograph for The Dugout, 1948
Gene Pelham (American, 1909-2004) Study for The Saturday Evening Post, September 4, 1948 Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, Illinois
More information

The Dugout, 1948

The Dugout, 1948
Norman Rockwell (American, 1894–1978) Tear sheet, The Saturday Evening Post, September 4, 1948 13 5/8 x 10 5/8 in. Norman Rockwell Museum Archival Collections ©1948SEPS: Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis

About Norman Rockwell

A Brief Biography


Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.
—Norman Rockwell

Born in New York City in 1894, Norman Rockwell always wanted to be an artist. At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The New York School of Art (formerly The Chase School of Art). Two years later, in 1910, he left high school to study art at The National Academy of Design. He soon transferred to The Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman, Rockwell learned the technical skills on which he relied throughout his long career.

Rockwell found success early. He painted his first commission of four Christmas cards before his sixteenth birthday. While still in his teens, he was hired as art director of Boys’ Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, and began a successful freelance career illustrating a variety of young people’s publications.

At age 21, Rockwell’s family moved to New Rochelle, New York, a community whose residents included such famous illustrators as J.C. and Frank Leyendecker and Howard Chandler Christy. There, Rockwell set up a studio with the cartoonist Clyde Forsythe and produced work for such magazines as Life, Literary Digest, and Country Gentleman. In 1916, the 22-year-old Rockwell painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, the magazine considered by Rockwell to be the “greatest show window in America.” Over the next 47 years, another 321 Rockwell covers would appear on the cover of the Post. Also in 1916, Rockwell married Irene O’Connor; they divorced in 1930.

The 1930s and 1940s are generally considered to be the most fruitful decades of Rockwell’s career. In 1930 he married Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, and the couple had three sons, Jarvis, Thomas, and Peter. The family moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939, and Rockwell’s work began to reflect small-town American life.

In 1943, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s address to Congress, Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms paintings. They were reproduced in four consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post with essays by contemporary writers. Rockwell’s interpretations of Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear proved to be enormously popular. The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly sponsored by the Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort.

Although the Four Freedoms series was a great success, 1943 also brought Rockwell an enormous loss. A fire destroyed his Arlington studio as well as numerous paintings and his collection of historical costumes and props.

In 1953, the Rockwell family moved from Arlington, Vermont, to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Six years later, Mary Barstow Rockwell died unexpectedly. In collaboration with his son Thomas, Rockwell published his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, in 1960. The Saturday Evening Post carried excerpts from the best-selling book in eight consecutive issues, with Rockwell’s Triple Self-Portrait on the cover of the first.

In 1961, Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a retired teacher. Two years later, he ended his 47-year association with The Saturday Evening Post and began to work for Look magazine. During his 10-year association with Look, Rockwell painted pictures illustrating some of his deepest concerns and interests, including civil rights, America’s war on poverty, and the exploration of space.

In 1973, Rockwell established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy by placing his works in the custodianship of the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society, later to become Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge. The trust now forms the core of the Museum’s permanent collections. In 1976, in failing health, Rockwell became concerned about the future of his studio. He arranged to have his studio and its contents added to the trust. In 1977, Rockwell received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 2008, Rockwell was named the official state artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, thanks to a dedicated effort from students in Berkshire County, where Rockwell lived for the last 25 years of his life.
About Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum, housed in a 560,000-square-foot, Beaux-Arts building, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country. Its world-renowned permanent collections range from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art, and represent a wide range of cultures. Only a 30-minute subway ride from midtown Manhattan, with its own newly renovated subway station, the Museum is part of a complex of nineteenth-century parks and gardens that also includes Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Prospect Park Zoo.

Renovation and Climatization (2007-10)
The Museum launched a number of major construction projects between 2007 and 2010. While renovating approximately 47,500 square feet of space, the majority of these projects included improvements to the Museum’s climate control. This effort, which addresses the lack of air conditioning and humidity control in the original century-old building, will be continued over the next decade in order to create ideal conditions for the collections and our visitors.

Beaux-Arts Court. In 2007 the Museum began an important project to address the severely deteriorated state of the original glass-block floor of the 10,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts Court, the Museum’s largest public space. A new floor was built over the damaged floor, while preserving the original. The floor consists of laminated glass panels, each the size of the original pre-cast concrete panels underneath. The new panels were set on a steel frame, and new hand-set marble mosaic tiles and pre-cast terrazzo, matching the original, were set between them.

The original floor panels are obscured but still visible through the new glass. This approach allows for the creation of a new, structurally sound floor constructed of entirely new materials while all existing historical fabric nonetheless remains in place. Moreover, in the Great Hall, located directly below the Court, the original coffering is now visible, as a result of removing the panels once installed under the vulnerable glass-block floor (in effect, the Hall’s ceiling) as a protective measure. From the Great Hall, the view upward to the original glass blocks is essentially as built, and the amount of light transmitted is not noticeably reduced.

This work was funded by the New York State Legislature and private donations. It received a 2009 Project Award from the Construction Management Association of America, Metro NY/NJ Chapter. Architects for the project were Polshek Partnership.

Kevorkian Gallery. The Museum’s Kevorkian Gallery, on the third floor, has for many years housed twelve ancient alabaster reliefs that came from Nimrud, a site now within the borders of modern Iraq. This long gallery was originally built with its floor slightly lower than the adjoining public spaces at either end, necessitating stairs as well as mechanical lifts to serve people with disabilities. To eliminate these disruptions, a new, sloped floor was built. The reliefs remained safely in place during construction. New railings, lighting, and signage were also installed. Architects for the project were Polshek Partnership.

Contemporary Art Galleries. Despite the Museum’s large and growing collection of contemporary art, there had never been a permanent gallery devoted to this work. With new walls, flooring, and lighting, areas formerly devoted to art storage on the fourth floor were transformed in 2009 into a 3,000-square-foot gallery for the display of contemporary artworks, with rotating installations from the collection. (New art storage facilities are being constructed elsewhere in the building.) The construction expense was provided by private donations. The project was designed in-house by the Planning Department working with curators and the Design Department.

Service Extension. The completion of the two-story service extension added 15,000 square feet of space to the Museum in a new structure set into the landscape along Washington Avenue. The extension houses significant mechanical equipment to provide climate control capacity for upcoming renovations and provides a new loading dock exclusively for the shipping of artworks. New offices and facilities for the handling and storage of art are also incorporated, as are major upgrades to electrical and communication systems. The service building, which was funded by the City of New York and private donations, received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification in 2009. Architects for the project were EwingCole.

Basement Renovation. A total transformation of the Museum’s basement began in 2009. Mechanical air handlers and ductwork for future gallery air conditioning have been installed. New offices and work areas for staff, including carpentry, painting, operations, food service, information technology, and security, will be completed by the end of 2010. Also as part of this effort, fire alarm systems for the entire building are being upgraded. The basement renovation was funded by the City of New York and private donations. Architects for the project were EwingCole.

Great Hall.
In June 2010, the Museum began a multi-phase effort to transform the Great Hall, on the ground floor near the public entry, into a dynamic new introductory gallery that will give visitors an inviting overview of the Museum’s vast and complex collections. Four large walls for the display of art will be built in the center of the space. These walls will also provide ductwork to cool or warm the space. New electrical panels, sprinklers, and gallery lighting will also be installed. This project is being funded by the City of New York and private donations. Architects for the project were Polshek Partnership, recently renamed Ennead Architects.

Climate Control Progress. Taken together, this construction and renovation work has brought air conditioning to an additional 55,000 square feet of the building, including 7,500 square feet of space that is both conditioned and humidified, which is necessary for art. This climate control infrastructure is needed for future building improvements that are now in the planning stage.

The Brooklyn Museum is a publicly funded institution that receives operating and capital support from the City of New York through the Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Council. Additional support is provided by the Brooklyn Borough President.
brooklynmuseum.org
nrm.org
brooklynmuseum.org