Rock of Ages

It is one of the most enduring images in all of art, a father and mother tucking their child into bed, the father holding a folded upside-down newspaper with its headline broadcasting the bombing of London by the Nazis. The title of the painting is Freedom From Fear by Norman Rockwell, the artist every culture snob loves to hate.

Indeed, the very name is synonymous with cornball Americana, as if to describe Pollyanna knocking off picture-perfect canvasses featuring June and Ward Cleaver and the boys, or what Martha Stewart would produce were she to turn her attention away from folding fitted sheets and decorating pine cones. And when it comes to answering to crimes against cubism, fauvism, Dadaism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, and all the other twentieth century isms, even his most loyal supporters have to plead nolo contendere. But then comes along a painting that hits you in the gut and you realize you are dealing with a modern American master.

The cheery, idealistic nature of most of his illustrations belies the inner Rockwell, who we now know, thanks to Laura Claridge's just published biography, "Norman Rockwell," was treated for depression, as were his two wives. The particulars of Rockwell's illness elude his biographer, but because of his wives, depression was a constant in his life. His first wife, Irene, was institutionalized, and drowned in her bath, a possible suicide. His second wife, Mary, was also institutionalized, and died of heart failure at age 51. Treatment for Mary amounted to $1,800 a month (equating to $12,500 in today's dollars), virtually assuring Rockwell would remain a highly-paid commercial illustrator rather than indulging in his dark side.

On January 6, 1941, with Europe under the thumb of the Nazis, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his historic "Four Freedoms" speech to Congress, articulating an American vision that inspired Rockwell to do what he did best. The result was a four-picture series - Freedom From Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, and Freedom From Fear - first featured on the covers of the Saturday Evening Post. Soon after, the paintings toured the country and helped raise $132 million in war bonds. The canvases are now the centerpiece of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. You have to look up to view them, and the effect is a virtual Cathedral to the American Dream.

All four pictures portray ordinary people doing ordinary things - gathered around the dinner table, at a town meeting, in prayer, and tucking a child into bed - but in the context of the values we hold dear, the effect is profound, the visual equivalent of FDR and Churchill in full rhetorical flight.

Oddly enough, Rockwell was never satisfied with Freedom From Fear, concerned that it was based "on a rather smug idea," since the continental US had never been under attack. Sixty years later, that is no longer the case. Freedom from fear is something we have temporarily lost, which we will have to win back the hard way. Norman Rockwell, it turns out, was right on the money, a prophet ahead of his time. One day, we will once again be able to tuck our kids under the covers, where the only thing they have to worry about are imaginary monsters under the bed. One day yet again, we may even be able to sell this idea to those who hate us, to populations that have known nothing but fear and want since anyone can recall.

Corny? Idealistic? Undoubtedly. We've always been funny that way. Fittingly, it took a man who lived in and around depression, the kind of person who had no choice but to see hope out of despair, to give visual expression to what truly moves us, those proud rows of corn in our hearts reaching up toward the sun.

Review of Claridge's book

Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms posters:

Norman Rockwell Museum

For three free online issues of McMan's Depression and Bipolar Weekly, email me and put "Sample" in the heading and your email address in the body.

Famous People articles All articles

Post your opinion here.

John McManamy

Order my book on Amazon

Order now

Newsletter

Your online source for issues that matter to you.

For free samples, email me and put "Sample" in the heading and your email address in the body.

Find out more.

Bookstore

Shop for depression and bipolar books online here.

Rockwell: Saw hope out of despair.