Norman Rockwell :: biographies bio biography

If you want to learn about a famous artist named Norman Rockwell then you have come to the right place. This essay contains some interesting and funny facts about this famous American. Some of the subjects are his early life, his birthday and birth-town. Other subjects are his accomplishments, comical stories and his patriotism. Norman Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894. His birthplace was New York City. At the age of 5 he attended the Triumphal Parade welcoming home Admiral Dewey. When he was 9 years old the Rockwell family relocated to Westchester, Pennsylvania. In 1909, at the age of 15, Norman disliked high school so much that he dropped out. He then attended Chase School, where he took art classes. He was given smaller, less important assignments because he was a student. By the age of 17, after illustrating his first book, ?Tell-Me-Why?, he knew he wanted to be an illustrator even though the masses thought illustrating was an inferior type of art and he would never amount to anything. Wow, did he surprise them! Norman Rockwell accomplished so much during his lifetime. In 1913, at the age of 19, he became the art director of Boys Life Magazine and in 1916 he painted his first of 318 Saturday Evening Post covers. During WWII, he painted a series of pictures titled ?The Four Freedoms?. These were based on a speech President Roosevelt made to Congress. Though these paintings, meant to be used by the military as recruiting posters, were rejected by the military, he later submitted them to the Postal Service and stamps were created from his works of art(Marling38) . He also had some funny things happen to him. During WWII he wanted to join the Navy. He was tall enough but was 4 lbs. to light. He decided to try again so the night before his second try he gorged himself with bananas, doughnuts and warm water! He succeeded! Rockwell had many friends. One of them was Walt Disney who was going to make a robotic replica of one of Rockwell?s paintings but never got around to it. Most of his paintings included his friends. His friend Carl Hess, the owner of the local gas station, can be seen in a painting as well as many townspeople from Vermont.