Existing comment:
Norman Rockwell
A Scout is Helpful
Rockwell was retained for the permanent staff of Boys' Life. The weekly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America had just expanded to National circulation. Six months later, Rockwell was promoted to art editor and he continued to work for Boys' Life until 1917. In gratitude for this early break and the valuable experience he gained, Rockwell made a life-long commitment to the Boy Scouts of America, producing their annual calendar illustrations from 1925 to 1976. Painted in 1939, Rockwell's 1941 Boy Scout calendar illustration of a Scout rescuing a child in a swollen river was inspired by the *Great New England Hurricane of 1938. Both that storm and the *Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 affected towns in New England as far north as Rockwell's Arlington, Vermont, hometown. Of all Rockwell's clients, the Boy Scouts of America demanded the most in changes to his work. Rockwell often had to redraw studies or repaint portions of canvasses, necessitating shipping the artwork from the publisher to Rockwell, back and forth until it was perfect. A Scout is Helpful was no exception. Rockwell's first version showed the scout in long pants, which were wet from the knees down. The Boy Scouts editor asked Rockwell to put the boy in short pants, as scouts were always to be shown neat and wet pants would not appear neat. 1941 calendar illustration for Boy Scouts of America Norman Rockwell Museum Collection Odds & Ends: *The National Weather Service did not begin naming hurricanes until 1950. Neither Rockwell nor any of his three sons were Boy Scouts. |