Untitled Study (Reclining Female & Portrait Study), Circa 1950s
Few artists are as closely tied to the American identity as Norman Rockwell—though the idealistic images of happy families, playful school children, and humble towns he created during his 47-year career at the Saturday Evening Post were nostalgic even in their day. “The view of life I communicate in my pictures excludes the sordid and ugly,” the artist said. “I paint life as I would like it to be.” To create these detailed slices of life, Rockwell created meticulously planned photographic studies. After leaving the Post in the 1960s, his paintings took a more political turn, and he spent the last decade of his life creating works that dealt with issues such as civil rights and the fight against poverty.