100 Years of Illustration

Howard Pyle and Norman Rockwell

I came across an article in a July 1994 Smithsonian Magazine by author Verlyn Klinkenborg in which he compares these two giants of illustration, in his words: totally American, yet not at all alike. 

Like me, Klinkenborg is certainly not an art historian, and, unlike me, a very learned and competent writer who appears to write about all sorts of things for The New York Times and other prestigious journals, certainly The Smithsonian Magazine being one of them. 

It's been evident from all the hits and page views this weblog receives, that both Pyle and Rockwell seem to be the most popular worldwide (most of our viewers reside in countries other than the United States.) 

 

Copyright 1959 by the Curtis Publishing Company.

Rockwell's painting, A Family Tree, appeared as the cover of the October 24, 1959 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. As homage to Pyle he says he put the initials H.P. on the treasure chest at the bottom of the painting to acknowledge his copying the galleons from Pyle's earlier work. Click on image to enlarge it.

I believe this is the chest in question, since it has remained throughout time one of the most popular of Howard Pyle's illustrations. You can see much more of his work here, and that of Norman Rockwell here.

Scroll down for each link because this portion will appear at the top.

 

Title page of the article. 

Howard Pyle in his studio, photo courtesy of the Delaware Art Museum.

Norman Rockwell in his studio, courtesy ot the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1960, an Appreciation

The following examples appeared in Norman Rockwell: 332 magazine covers and are copyright © 1979 by Cross River Press, Ltd., and Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co., where applicable.

Christopher Finch's compilation of 332 magazine covers by Norman Rockwell.

Did the introduction to magazine publishing of Playboy in 1953 and its imitators influence Norman Rockwell? Whatever it is was, he had already revealed himself as an illustrator with an appreciation of young women, but the previous examples were painterly and circumspect, in keeping with the Post's editorial policy of conservative correctness. Click on image to enlarge this illustration for a Post cover of 27 August 1960.

Exhibit 1. Pert and perky young woman. Rockwell had done pert and perky before, but she could be described as voluptuous.

Exhibit 2. This is the Old Master himself looking back at the young woman talking to the sailor or surreptitiously checking out the back of another attractive young woman. It's a great inside joke: the self-deprecating humor of a confessed ogler.

I've saved the best for last. Click on the above image to enlarge the sketch for a cover that ran on 17 September 1960.

I don't think anyone could have done better than this. Compared to the slick renderings of sexy women by his contemporaries, this young woman is real. I know, I married someone who could have been her sister.

Next: Howard Pyle (1853-1911) the great Master of American Illustration.

Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1940-1943

The following examples appeared in Norman Rockwell: 332 magazine covers and are copyright © 1979 by Cross River Press, Ltd. , and Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co., where applicable.

Christopher Finch's compilation of 332 magazine covers by Norman Rockwell.

18 May 1940. In this illustration, Rockwell has gone a bit too cartoony for my taste. As a character she is not in keeping with her manicure customer. I've tried to find the cartoonist's work who this reminds me of, but to no avail. The style says Film Fun or one of the girly books of the period. It's not one of Rockwell's best but it shows that he could get off course or worse yet, be persuaded to do so by his editor. Compare the work to these of the following year.

1 March 1941. The technique is pure Norman Rockwell. Note the masterful way in which the saddle shoes are painted.

5 September 1941. The draft has taken young men off to train for the war that had been raging in Europe for two years. Two young women confront each other with snapshots of the same soldier. In real life, the models were the young daughters of Mead Schaeffer, another Post cover artist and illustrator and Rockwell's neighbor in Arlington, Vermont.

Rockwell's World War II young housewife doing her bit for the war effort in a 4 September 1943 cover. The meticulous pencil sketch appears above. The Japanese imperial flag and the swastika brickbats she dodges were eliminated for the final art, below. Click on the bottom image to enlarge it.

Next: Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1960, an Appreciation.

Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1919-1936

The following examples appeared in Norman Rockwell: 332 magazine covers and are copyright © 1979 by Cross River Press, Ltd., and Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co.

Christopher Finch's compilation of 332 magazine covers by Norman Rockwell.

A Rockwell cover for 21 March 1919 when he was 25 years old. Christopher Finch writes that this painting was a milestone in Rockwell's career for its "crispness," and as a "harbinger of things to come." That's true. He certainly got a lot better at illustrating young women.

Though his covers were meticulously painted, the subject matter throughout the early years were hardly more than cartoon situations. It wasn't until he was in mid-career that we see one of our first provocative depictions of the female form as in this Rockwell cover for 8 April 1933. He's got his model up on her toes to accentuate the lovely curve of her gluteus maximus.

By 7 March 1936 Rockwell had "gone Hollywood" with this young woman, portraying her amidst his usual cast of characters but painting her in what I would call a conservative and controlled John La Gatta style.

Next: Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1940-1943.

Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: An Introduction

We remember Norman Rockwell as a gifted illustrator mostly for the hundreds of covers he did for The Saturday Evening Post, a weekly magazine not particularly known for its sophistication. I would not describe it as a publication so much for "white bread America" as "biscuits and gravy America." At the time I thought both Collier's and Life magazine more interesting.

Illustrators everywhere marvelled at Rockwell's ability. It's one thing to compose this scene and quite another to draw and paint in all the characters -- and get it right in the process. Overwhelming! Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co.

We didn't always like his corny approach such as in this calendar page, probably from Brown & Bigelow for whom he worked for decades, and for whose needs the art was nevertheless perfect. Copyright © Brown & Bigelow.

Copyright © Crest.

We also wondered why he would want to do work for advertising agencies when he had a hefty income from Post covers alone. My guess is that this little girl was a sketch he had done for a Post cover and subsequently rejected. The hand is either an afterthought or someone else did it in his style because there is no way that it's in the correct position.

Yet another approach, similar to the Four Freedom paintings for which he was famous, only this time for a bank. A big bank to be sure, one of the very biggest. I can almost hear the art director saying, "Norm, give us something like the Four Freedoms, only smaller." Sorry, I couldn't resist. Copyright © Chase Manhattan Bank.

So, it's obvious that Norman Rockwell appears to have been driven to knock out painting after painting. It's a humungous body of work for anyone to produce, and as he progressed he simply got better and better at what he did. However, I have never heard him praised for is his ability to paint beautiful young women, which I would like to show and tell.

The following examples appeared in Norman Rockwell: 332 magazine covers and are copyright © 1979 by Cross River Press, Ltd., and Copyright © Curtis Publishing Co. wherever applicable.

Christopher Finch's compilation of 332 magazine covers by Norman Rockwell.

This is a cover for 5 August 1939 and in my opinion one of his finest paintings of a young woman. It was published at the time of year that summer stock theater productions are in full swing and depicts a beautiful young college student in costume applying her makeup while being observed by a chicken whose home has been converted into an impromptu dressing room.

Click on image to enlarge.

Next: Norman Rockwell's Pretty Women: 1919-1936.