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Norman Rockwell
My Adventures as an Illustrator 'Great Expectations'
In 1916, Rockwell's great expectations encompassed both his professional and personal hopes and dreams. He was well on his way in the field of illustration, known primarily for his pictures of boys and sad-eyed puppy dogs, but he was about to reach for the pinnacle-a career with the Saturday Evening Post, the most prestigious magazine for illustrators at the time. Inclusion on the cover of the Post guaranteed that everyone who mattered would see your work. Offering his cover idea to the editors of the Post was the single most important step in Rockwell's career; the outcome charted a course for Rockwell that he would follow for 47 years. Rockwell told the story of submitting his work to the editors, and his embarrassment over the home-made black box he built to hold his artwork, to magazine and newspaper writers dozens of times during his lifetime. A pivotal experience, it remained one of the outstanding moments in his life. Living at Edgewood Hall in 1916, the current boardinghouse of the Rockwell family, a young schoolteacher named Irene O'Connor became the object of Rockwell's affections. Full of adrenalin and great expectations for his future, after securing his first commissions with the Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell impulsively asked Irene to marry him. The great expectation of marital bliss paralleled Dickens' novel of unrequited love; Irene spent much of her time living away from home, or in avoidance, by inviting her family to live with them so that Rockwell's affections were never matched. |