I taught this lesson last week in my son's 6th grade class. The first part of the lesson got too long. There were way to many facts and not enough interaction or activity. It got boring. The second part of the lesson went well.
Normal Rockwell Art Masterpiece Lesson
Normal Rockwell Art Masterpiece Lesson
By Mindy Sanders
Biographical
Information
Read the book “Getting to Know the World’s
Greatest Artists: Norman Rockwell”
Facts:
·
Norman Rockwell worked for the Saturday Evening
Post for forty-seven years. It is one of
the most famous working relationships in history.
·
In 1916, at the age of 22, Rockwell Married
Irene O’Conner; they divorced in 1930.
·
After
the divorce he was depressed, and he moved briefly to Alhambra, California as a
guest of his old friend Clyde Forsythe. There he painted some of his best-known
paintings including "The Doctor and the Doll". While there he met
Mary Barstow.
·
In 1930, at the age of 36, he married Mary
Barstow, a schoolteacher, and the couple had three sons, Jarvis, Thomas and
Peter. The family moved to Arlington,
Vermont, in 1939, and Rockwell’s work began to reflect small-town American
life.
·
In 1943, inspired by President Franklin
Roosevelt’s address to Congress, Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms paintings.
They were reproduced in four consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post with essays by contemporary writers. Rockwell’s interpretations of Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship,
Freedom from Want, and Freedom from
Fear proved to be enormously popular.
The works toured the United States in an exhibition that was jointly
sponsored by the Post and the U.S.
Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130
million for the war effort.
·
Although the Four Freedoms series was a great
success, 1943 also brought Rockwell an enormous loss. A fire destroyed his Arlington studio as well
as numerous painting and his collection of historical costumes and props.
·
In 1953 Mary Barstow Rockwell died unexpectedly.
·
In 1961 Rockwell married Molly Punderson, a
retired teacher.
·
In 1977, Rockwell received the nation’s highest
civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
·
Rockwell died on November 8, 1978.
·
In 2008, Rockwell was named the official state
artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, thanks to a dedicated effort from
students in Berkshire County, where Rockwell lived for the last 25 years of his
life.
Facts taken from: http://www.nrm.org/about-2/about-norman-rockwell/
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Rockwell
“Rockwell did not want to paint anything tragic or
corrupt, he simply wanted to paint good-humored subjects. Normal Rockwell painted what he wanted life
to be” (T.S. Denison & Co., Inc. Classic to Contemporary, p. 70).
More Fun Facts:
Runs in the family. Norman's grandfather was an English artist,
Thomas Hill, who specialized in very detailed animal drawings. Norman's father
liked to copy illustrations from magazines, and would pull up a chair for
Norman to do it with him.
Silver lining. As a boy, Norman was very thin and awkward.
His pigeon-toed feet caused him to wear corrective shoes at the age of ten, and
glasses at twelve -- giving him the nickname "Moony". Poor at sports, he found he could entertain
his friends through his art.
Eating his way in. When he was turned down for the Navy because
he was too skinny, he stuffed himself with bananas, warm water and doughnuts
and went back. He was accepted, but when they found out who he was, they
allowed him to continue to paint for his regular clients while doing his
service in the Navy.
A new tool. In his earlier work, Rockwell
worked from live models. When he began to use a camera to snap pictures of the
models, he began to work in wilder, more exaggerated poses -- ones that would
have been hard for a live model to hold for hours.
Tom and Huck. Before he illustrated Mark
Twain's classic books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
Finn, Rockwell went to Twain's boyhood town of Hannibal, Missouri. Rockwell
walked the streets and country lanes. He even was able to interview townspeople
who lived during Mark Twain's lifetime. Such research helped to make his
illustrations capture the sense of mythical boyhood in the books. What a
perfect combination: Twain and Rockwell.
Historical
Info about the Era
The country had two world wars and the great
depression during Norman Rockwell’s lifetime.
It was a sad, hard time. Norman
Rockwell paintings brought hope in that dark era. Rockwell said this about his work, “Without thinking too much about it in
specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who
might not have noticed.”
The Story Behind the Picture – “The Dugout”
“This painting was Rockwell's 255th overall of 322
total pictures featured on the cover of The Post. Rockwell's career with the
Post spanned 47 years, from his first cover illustration, Boy With Baby
Carriage in 1916 to his last, Portrait of John F. Kennedy, in 1963.
“This is the only one of Rockwell's Saturday
Evening Post cover where the published painting was rendered in watercolor on
paper. Rockwell was nearing his deadline for the assignment and realized that
the oil on canvas painting he was working on would not be dry in time to meet
the deadline.
“He abandoned the oil on canvas illustration he
was working on, and, instead, turned to the faster drying watercolor medium for
the painting that was published on the cover. Then he finished the oil on
canvas and gave it to a friend. That oil
on canvas was sold at auction in March, 2001. The opening bid was $100,000 USD.
[I don’t know] the amount of the closing bid for that auction.
“Another oil on canvas study of The Dugout was
recently auctioned by Christie's in New York on December 2, 2009. That painting
brought $662,500 US at the hammer.
“The painting expresses the anguish the Chicago
Cubs were feeling during the 1948 season. The events depicted are from a double
header with the Boston Braves at Boston Braves Field on May 23, 1948. The Cubs dropped
both games that day, losing 5-8 the first game and 4-12 the second. At the
start of the day the Cubs record was 11-15, and, at the end of the double
header, their record was even worse at 11-17.
“I have read opinions that this painting was what
actually firmly cemented the image of Loveable Losers into the consciousness of
the Chicago Cubs. We have to wonder if the Cubs management really knew what the
illustration would be about. Whatever effect the painting has or has not played
on Chicago Cubs' psyche over the decades since, the painting is not a
flattering portrayal of the 1948 team.
“With this glimpse into the Cubs dugout, Norman
Rockwell gives us an insight into the side of sports that most sports coverage
avoids, the agony of defeat. He also shows us the ugly side of winning.
“First, let's talk about the agony of defeat. We
can see four Chicago Cubs players and their batboy.
“The bat boy is actually a real bat boy. His name
is Frank McNulty. He was actually the batboy for the Boston Braves, but donned
a Cubs uniform to pose for the painting. Frank had a bit of a challenge getting
into character for this painting. Rockwell had to really change his mood to get
the facial expression he wanted. Remember Frank's team was the Braves, and they
were winning.
“Behind the bat boy, we can see the on deck
hitter. All-Star pitcher Johnny Schmitz, the next Cub at bat, looks very
apprehensive and anxious. He doesn't look very confident at all.
“Inside the dugout, totally shielded from both the
sun and the fans, we can observe the mood of three Cubs players. It is dark
inside the dugout. All three look disgusted at the course of events of the
game. Maybe one of them has just batted and is dejected by their performance.
That attitude can certainly be catching.
“Seated in the middle is manager Charlie Grimm.
Seated to his left is pitcher Bob Rush and to Grimm's right is Al Walker, the
catcher.
“Some of the fans in the background also
illustrate the ugly side of winning.
“We are not told whether the fans in the
background are Braves fans of Cubs fans. We can, however, observe that a large
portion of them are jeering at the Cubs that they can see, so it is safe to
assume that they are being portrayed as Braves fans. In other words they are
fans of the home team which is also winning.
“Apparently, something has just happened in the
game that merits the fans' attention. From the fans' delighted expressions and
the Cub player's dejected expressions, we can deduce that something bad for the
Cubs has just taken place on the diamond.
“Most of the fans are jeering the on deck batter
and the bat boy. A few appear to just be enjoying the turn of events in the
game without rubbing salt into wounds.
“Rockwell often used his neighbors in paintings. I
wonder how many Stockbridge natives are depicted in this group of Boston Braves
fans. I have no doubt that most of Stockbridge really considered the Braves
their hometown team.
“Some of the models identities are known. The girl
farthest to the left is Helen Fitzsimmons, daughter of Braces' coach Freddie
Fitzsimmons. The girl just to the left of the batboy's head is Theresa
Prendergrasty, wife of Jim Prendergrast, one of the Braves' pitchers.
“We can actually get a glimpse of Rockwell in the
painting. His face appears in the upper left corner as part of the jeering
crowd. So the painting is also at least partly a Norman Rockwell self-portrait”
( http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/1948-the-dugout.html).
Art Genre
“Rockwell
is notable for working in Realism throughout Abstract art's heyday in
the U.S.” (http://arthistory.about.com/cs/namesrr/p/rockwell.htm).
“In general, realism in art and literature refers
to the attempt to represent familiar and everyday people and situations in an
accurate, unidealized manner. More specifically, the term "realism"
refers to a literary and artistic movement of the late 1800's and early 1900's.
This movement was a reaction against romanticism. Romanticism was an earlier
movement that presented the world in much more idealized terms.
“The realists wanted to break away from the formal
artistic styles and subjects of the past. So they created objective,
unemotional works that were unadorned with imaginative flourishes. Their works
typically portrayed ordinary, or working-class, people, as opposed to heroic,
historic, biblical, or royal figures. They also depicted scenes of traditional
life, such as rural landscapes with farmers herding oxen or harvesting grain.
The realists sought to honor what they felt was the noble dignity of humble
people leading simple lives” (http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3753924).
Student Discussion Questions
Show
the students several of Norman Rockwell’s Paintings
1. What do you like best about Rockwell’s work?
2. If you could purchase one print o Rockwell’s
work, which print would it be? Why would
you choose it? Where would you hang it?
3. Do you think you would be able to recognize
some of Rockwell’s other works when you see them? How?
Element of Art
A
technique that Norman Rockwell used to paint his pictures was photography. (Show Pictures vs Paintings)
“Norman Rockwell wasn't always behind the easel.
“The famed American painter often staged photos to
use as reference for his iconic illustrations before committing them to the
canvas.
“"There were details, accidents of light,
which I'd missed when I'd been able to make only quick sketches of a
setting," Rockwell once said. "A
photograph catches all that."
“Early on in his career, Rockwell used
professional models to sit for his highly-detailed illustrations.
“But as his works began to take on a more
realistic quality, he had assistants start snapping pictures - an element of
Rockwell's creative process that is highlighted in Norman Rockwell Museum's
traveling exhibit "Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera."
“"The photographs allowed him to capture a
lot of the details he was imagining," Jeremy Clowe, the museum's manager
of Media Services, told the Daily News. "From
the 1940s on, he really went into little subtleties that wouldn't really be
possible without photography."
“As the exhibit's title suggests, Rockwell was
always behind the scenes, even though he wasn't pressing the camera's shutter.
“He would often act like a "movie
director," Clowe said, coaching the models, who were usually his
neighbors, on their expressions and making sure that every detail in the photo
was perfect.
“"The photographs can really stand on their
own," Clowe added. "They're instantly recognizable as Norman Rockwell
works."
“Photography as reference, of course, was a
technique artists used well before Rockwell” (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/norman-rockwell-photographs-show-technique-behind-master-article-1.1179719#ixzz2lFEkSk7p).
Remember when we learned about positive
and negative space in a painting? “For example, in a portrait,
the person’s image is the positive space; the negative space is the area
surrounding the figure” (http://www.nrm.org/pdfs/teacher_resource.pdf). Norman Rockwell had a lot of detail in his
positive space, but he also put lots of interesting details and fun things to
look at in the negative space. That’s
what makes them look so fun.
Art Project
“Students viewed several paintings by the artist Norman Rockwell. They discussed the common
themes in the paintings such as people, family, everyday events, details, and
filling the whole page. Then I showed them his April Fool's print "The
Game", and I told them not to say anything right away. Slowly smiles
started forming on all their faces as they noticed that there was more to this
painting than first meets the eye. Students were then instructed to draw their
own "everyday scene" with lots of details. After their drawings were
complete they had to go back and add more details that did not belong! The
drawings were completed by tracing in fine point marker, and coloring and
shading with colored pencils” (http://www.mrsbrownart.com/5th.htm).
Make
copies of the blank Saturday Evening Post template in the folder for the
students to draw their own “April Fools” print.
Picture vs Painting
