Book Description

America's best-loved artist, Norman Rockwell, presented a cornucopia of images throughout his long and prolific career. Exhibiting extraordinary talent and technical ability in his paintings, Rockwell evoked feelings of kinship and empathy. With uncanny accuracy, Rockwell represented the experiences, sentiments, and aspirations of ordinary people, and the people responded, contributing to his tremendous success and popularity. Rockwell was always fond of linking his subject matter to holidays and seasons - to Thanksgiving, or the Fourth of July, or New Year's Day - but above all to Christmas, with its atmosphere of family warmth, love and giving. If any single theme can be called characteristic of Rockwell's work or closet to the artist's heart it must surely be that of family warmth and happiness during the holiday season. If it can be said that Rockwell can be remembered for any one body of work, it must also be this. From December 9, 1916, when Rockwell's first Christmas cover for the Saturday Evening Post appeared, and continuing for three decades, the artist's annual Post Christmas cover was practically a national institution. As the clamor for Rockwell's Christmas paintings increased, he produced them for other magazines as well, and for cards, advertisements, illustrations, and calendars. Each of the paintings embodied the human dimension of the holiday season - reflecting exuberance, nostalgia, humor, and spontaneous kindness. This album features more than 50 full-color reproductions of Rockwell's most beloved Christmas season paintings, selected from every phase of his career and spanning a period of 60 years. Author Kirk's informative text illuminates the artistic career of the artist who captured the loving and uniquely American spirit of a holiday dear to the hearts of so many people around the world.