Tag Archives: Norman Rockwell

Carl Larsson’s Idyllic Spring

Posted on by
Spring

I’ve just returned from a quick visit to Sweden (my grandmother’s 90th birthday). The snow there has melted, and spring has just started to peak out from under the dead leaves. Carl Larsson’s images are representative of some of the idyllic Swedish days, full of light, that are just starting. 

Breakfast under the Big Birch Tree

Similar to Norman Rockwell in America, Larsson’s focus was on the home and happy families, and encapsulate the best and most charming aspects of Swedish life at the turn of the century. Also like Rockwell, advances in technology allowed his work to spread and become popularly known. Larsson’s watercolors could be reproduced easily through new printing techniques, just as Rockwell’s illustrations were spread on the cover of magazines. Having only spent the warmer months there, my memories of Sweden are just as idyllic.

Flowers on the Windowsill

Take a tour of Carl Larsson’s well-preserved and beautifully decorated home here. 

American Populists: Andrew Wyeth and Norman Rockwell

Posted on by
Andrew Wyeth, Benny’s Scarecrow

The painter Andrew Wyeth died last Friday. In a way, he was a most unpopular populist. As the New York Times describes here, his main value to most art historians was that he provided an alternative to Modernism in the 1940s and 50s. Not quite high praise. The American public, the part that didn’t go in for Modernism, tended to be much fonder of Wyeth’s realistic images.

His form of realism seems to be what endears him to the common man, placing him in the class of Americana with Norman Rockwell. A spiritual opposite of Norman Rockwell, however, his negativity and earthiness depict another side of America’s identity. His subject matter is rural and humble; his style accessible, that is to say, it looks like real objects. His excellently composed scenes have an almost magical realism, but ultimately, I find them a little dull.

Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s Field

His most famous painting, above, is of a woman in his community who was crippled and pulled herself through fields rather than use a wheelchair. Wyeth admired her independence and determination. In this and much of his work, he overlays the American landscape with foreboding atmosphere and Puritanical ethos. Whereas Wyeth seems like the last of the Puritans, Rockwell’s work shows a New American optimism.

Norman Rockwell, The Roadblock

Is it fair to say Wyeth represents an older, Puritan ethos and Rockwell represents the exuberant America coming out of WWII?

Who is more American?

Thanksgiving Ideals

Posted on by


Is this your family thanksgiving? It might be a bit off the mark with mine.

The clean shining faces around the table evoke a contented family peace. Norman Rockwell created this image entitled Freedom From Want for the Saturday Evening Post in 1954. He feared when he made it that he might convey overabundance with the theme of freedom from want, which he felt America offered. His idealized Americana scenes might not exactly evoke screaming children or burnt turkeys as in some households (who shall remain nameless) but the feeling is right. At the end of the second or third helping, one can at least feel that with enough food and hopefully a good red wine, any Thanksgiving can be one of thanks giving.

At the very least, give thanks if your November 24 skips on the uncanny faces and massive uncooked turkey flesh and doesn’t resemble American painter John Currin’s Thanksgiving;