Freedom in the arts
Norman Rockwell illustrates a family preparing for Thanksgiving dinner through his painting Freedom From Want. Courtesy of Aesthetic Reflections
Courtesy of Aesthetic Reflections
In 1943, American artist Mr. Norman Rockwell illustrated the values of gratitude and liberty in one of his most famous paintings, Freedom from Want, according to tampabay.com.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms Speech” in January 1941 was Mr. Rockwell’s inspiration for the painting. In the speech, Mr. Roosevelt discussed the freedom of speech, of worship, freedom from fear, and from want. Mr. Roosevelt saw these freedoms as essential to the future of the United States, according to carnegiecouncil.org.
Mr. Rockwell depicted these same freedoms in a series of four original paintings entitled Four Freedoms. As a resident of New England, Mr. Rockwell illustrated the people and the setting of New England in most of his works.
During March 1943, the Saturday Evening Post published individual essays describing each of these four freedoms. This newspaper describes each freedom, showing each painting and describing what is being depicted within the art series. Mr. Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech, depicts an individual standing in a large crowd preparing to speak out. The next painting, Freedom of Worship, showed a community joining in prayer. The last of the four is Freedom from Fear, which portrays parents tucking their children to bed for a peaceful nights rest.
For Freedom from Want, Mr. Rockwell painted a Thanksgiving dinner with three generations of a family surrounding the table. In the foreground of the painting, the family is preparing to start Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner consists of turkey, a small dish of celery, and cranberry sauce. The painting showcases the lack of nutritional food available for the average American family during the Great Depression according to tampabay.com.
“A lot of his paintings have this simple type of thing. It wasn’t decked out. Not like eighteenth century France or Versailles that was for Europe. For Rockwell America was this more transparent, straightforward type of place,” Upper School Theology and History Teacher Mr. Dan Favata said.
Through the painting, Mr. Rockwell conveys that material items do not create happiness. Rockwell created Freedom From Want in order to represent an idealistic view of American life. He expresses this perspective and the importance of each freedom through his view of America, according to pbs.org.
“The view of life I communicate in my pictures excludes the sordid and ugly. I paint life as I would like it to be,” Mr. Rockwell said, according to tampabay.com.
Today, the four freedom paintings are hanging in their own gallery in the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Mr. Favata emphasizes the blessings of both the students and faculty at Convent of the Sacred Heart. These blessings are exactly what Mr. Rockwell was hoping to convey in his paintings, according to tampabay.com.
“I think that we are very fortunate to be here,” Mr. Favata said. “By the way we treat one another everyday and by how hard we work, I think that is how we express our gratitude for the gift that is a Sacred Heart education.”
– Elisabeth Hall, Staff Writer
Isa Pace • Dec 7, 2015 at 11:09 pm
Dear Bizzy,
Happy you wrote about Norman Rockwell. One of America’s great artists, who captures all of the emotion in a very difficult time in history. He reminds us how precious life is and how grateful we should be for all the small things in our life. Norman Rockwell was a great American.
Patrick Ellis • Nov 29, 2015 at 8:11 am
Great job Bizzy. Your mother inroduced me to the renown works of Norman Rockwell and pleased you are carrying on the tradition.
Great topic. Well presented.
Happy Thanksgiving
Love. Daddy
Chadwick • Nov 28, 2015 at 10:01 am
Well done! Rockwell was fairly unique in his showcasing of American families and values. In that way his work may differ from works on Versailles, but they nonetheless show an ideal representative of the particular time period.
Tanja Ellis • Nov 28, 2015 at 12:32 am
How wonderful to read about the four freedoms. Although Rockwell does not paint the sordid and the ugly his precision of the ideal makes us remember how lucky we are for the “moments” in our lives.
Happy Thanksgiving.