American artists were known for their experimentation with color and form during the 20th century, but one can't forget the mainstream artists either. It was through the work of painters like Norman Rockwell that the spirit of the country was captured in iconic scenes and symbols, particularly during the turbulent period from the Great Depression, World War II, and beyond.

Born in 1894 in New York City, Rockwell was the descendant of John Rockwell, one of the first English settlers in Connecticut. At age 14, he left high school and entered art school, but he would not develop his unique style until he transferred to the Art Students League. Learning from great artists like Thomas Fogarty, Rockwell began to illustrate for magazines like Boys' Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America. At age 21, he achieved mainstream success as an illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post.

During World War II, a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt inspired Rockwell to paint his most famous series, Four Freedoms. Their appeal proved useful when the US Treasury Department later put them on exhibit around the country to promote the sale of war bonds. However, 1943 was also the year that Rockwell's studio was hit with a terrible fire, destroying several original paintings. Yet Rockwell continued to paint for the Post, Look Magazine, and the Otis College of Art and Design. He was also fortunate enough to receive commissions to paint portraits of several US Presidents like Eisenhower and Kennedy, foreign dignitaries like Jawaharlal Nehru, and celebrities like Judy Garland.

Over the course of his long career, Norman Rockwell produced over 4,000 paintings and illustrations for magazines and books. Because of his attention to reproducing lifelike details and using warm colors, Rockwell's paintings were highly sentimental, with scenes usually set in the Midwest. They showed everyday scenes of men and women, both young and old, in everyday activities, whether it was a troop of Boy Scouts for the cover of Boys' Life, two young lovers at a classic dinner, or a family saying grace at dinner.

During the postwar years of his career, Rockwell focused on more serious subjects. In 1964, he tackled the issue of racial integration and the civil rights movement with a painting entitled The Problem We All Live With. The scene depicts a young African-American girl being escorted by federal marshals into a school, as the group walks past thrown tomatoes from an unseen crowd and racist graffiti on the walls. What makes the scene so poignant is that the marshals are only seen from the shoulders down. All attention is focused on the child, painted in an innocent white dress against a stark background. Not only was it rare to make an African-American the central subject of a Rockwell painting, but the brief glimpse of hostilities over the civil rights movement shows how Rockwell himself is maturing his own image of America, moving away from simple optimism to a serious look at the issues of the day.

At the time, many art critics dismissed Rockwell as a serious artist. Most viewed his work as a commercial product, even to the point of calling him merely an "illustrator." However, his mass appeal has remained strong ever since, particularly due to an interest in preserving memorabilia from the Forties and Fifties. For some, Rockwell paints about the heart of modern America.

To see more paintings by Norman Rockwell, you can visit museums across the US like the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island.

Image by James Vaughn on Flickr