Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell may be America's most beloved artist. Perhaps best known for the extraordinary series of highly detailed covers he painted for The Saturday Evening Post from 1916 to 1963, Rockwell excelled at capturing ordinary life in the United States with a documentary style that reflected the changes in that life over a period of time that included two world wars and the depression. Celebrated and denigrated for his portrayal of America, Rockwell painted the United States as an ideal, but always with a bitter nugget of truth and a sense of humor. He was a master of detailed observation, a brilliant technician and draftsman and a notable portraitist, adept at capturing a likeness or expression, in a way that could be heroic or ordinary. His skill as an illustrator is familiar, as are many of his paintings, including The Four Freedoms and the drawings for Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, but Rockwell has gained greater renown as a commentator on the twentieth century life in the United States. Over 150 illustrations in color and black and white bring the work of this great artist to life. Norman Rockwell is a book certain to be well as those interested in the development of art in America. It will also remind those who know Rockwell by reputation alone of the range and complexity of his talent