History Creator / NormanRockwell

Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing thousands of works in his lifetime. His artwork, which typically involved gently humorous or sentimental depictions of childhood or idyllic American life, has frequently been [[ReferencedBy/NormanRockwell homaged and parodied]] in popular culture, to the point of StockParody. Website/TVTropes articles where his paintings provide the page image are listed under [[Trivia/NormanRockwell trivia]].

Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing thousands of works in his lifetime. His artwork, which typically involved gently humorous or sentimental depictions of childhood or idyllic American life, has frequently been [[ReferencedBy/NormanRockwell homaged and/or parodied in popular culture]], to the point of StockParody.

* GossipyHens: The subject of ''The Gossips'', where a bit of juicy conversation goes through a whole chain of persons and finally returns to the original sender.

* HeroicBSOD: ''The Discovery'' is about a young boy rummaging through his parents' drawers and discovering the AwfulTruth that Santa Claus is only a costume his father puts on every year at Christmas. The painting depicts the moment where the poor kid just stands there, staring wide-eyed at the camera, as the discovery fully sinks in.

%%* POVCam: Subjects in Rockwell's paintings are often seen from behind in this manner.

%%* SantaClaus: Rockwell depicted the big guy numerous times during his career.

%%** The ''Post'' cover ''A Day in the Life of a Girl'' includes this in one panel.

* WorthIt: Pretty clearly the attitude of the girl sitting outside the principal's office in ''The Shiner'': she's grinning, implying she's happy she got the black eye.

%%* TheAllAmericanBoy: One of his favorite subjects.

%%* AsideGlance: Also done by the wife in ''Breakfast Table''.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: The children in Rockwell's art tend to be at worst mischievous, but ''never'' malicious.

* FieryRedhead: The auburn-haired heroine of ''The Shiner'' is implied to be one. She's a schoolgirl with a black eye waiting outside an authority's office, implying she got into a fight, but she's also grinning very widely.
%%* TheFifties
%%* GirlNextDoor: She won't be too far behind, and she does show up in some of his more famous works as well.

%%* GossipyHens
* GossipEvolution: ''The Gossips'' features a conversational game of telephone that, when it loops back to the original gossip spreader, leaves her surprised, implying it's changed a lot.
* HeroicBSOD: ''The Discovery'' is about a young boy rummaging through his parents' drawers and discovering the AwfulTruth that Santa Claus is only a costume his father puts on every year at Christmas. The painting depicts the moment where the poor kid just stands there, wide-eyed, as his discovery fully sinks in.
%%* HighSchoolSweethearts: Where TheAllAmericanBoy and the GirlNextDoor hook up.

%%* MoodWhiplash: Look at a bunch of Rockwell's small-town life paintings, then check out ''[[http://ayay.co.uk/backgrounds/paintings/norman_rockwell/lets-give-him-enough-and-on-time.jpg Let's Give Him Enough and On Time]]''. Or ''[[http://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/southern-justice-murder-in-mississippi-1965 Southern Justice]]''. Or ''[[https://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/the-problem-we-all-live-with-1935 The Problem We All Live With]]''.

* InternalDeconstruction: After he quit ''The Saturday Evening Post'' in 1963 over its attempts to get him to avoid civil rights issues and went to work for ''Look'' the following year, his illustrations increasingly came to resemble socially conscious subversions of the down-home Americana that had become his stock in trade, to the point that somebody today looking at ''The Problem We All Live With'' or ''Murder in Mississippi'' might think they were created as a DarkerAndEdgier satire of Rockwell for one of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games.

Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator.

Rockwell began his artistic career with ''Boys' Life'', the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, and he would continue to illustrate for them well into his eighties. He also did cover art for a number of other magazines (most notably for ''The Saturday Evening Post'' from 1916 to 1963, after which he provided illustrations for ''Look'' until that magazine's closure in 1971) and did numerous print advertisements.

* ManlyFacialHair: James K. Van Brunt served as a model for many of Rockwell's early ''Saturday Evening Post'' covers in the 1920s, sporting a spectacular mustache. After several paintings in which Van Brunt is immediately recognizable, ''Post'' editors eventually complained that the distinctive 'stache was becoming too overused, and Rockwell paid Van Brunt $10 to shave it. (As for the {{Badass}} credentials, Van Brunt was a retired U.S. Army lieutenant and veteran of both the Civil War and Spanish American War.)

* EverytownAmerica: A classic setting, inspired in part by his own small town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Rockwell painted the kind of idealized "Main Street" small town with friendly families, playing children, and picturesque outdoors.

* ArtisticTitle: For the 1966 remake of ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', Rockwell painted in-character portraits of all the primary cast, which were used in the film's closing credits sequence as well as its poster art. (Rockwell also had a brief {{cameo}} appearance in the film itself as a poker player.)

%%* AsideGlance: Also done by the wife in "Breakfast Table".
* BackToCameraPose: "The Connoisseur" depicts an art expert examining a Creator/JacksonPollock-style painting from the back. Rockwell intended it as a commentary on how his realistic works clashed with those of abstract expressionists such as Pollock, and so the titular connoisseur's reaction to the painting is left ambiguous by his pose. (Rockwell was reportedly an admirer of Pollock, FWIW.)

* CultureEqualsCostume: "The Golden Rule" shows people of various racial and ethnic backgrounds shown in their respective traditional dress.

* EmbarrassingTattoo: "The Tattoo", where a tough looking guy is having the name of his ''next'' girlfriend being written on his arm, atop a long list of crossed out names of former girlfriends.

* FieryRedhead: The auburn-haired heroine of "The Shiner" is implied to be one. She's a schoolgirl with a black eye waiting outside an authority's office, implying she got into a fight, but she's also grinning very widely.

* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: "Stolen Clothes" has a mild variant, with a dog making off with a boy's pants and leaving him in his swim trunks.

* GossipEvolution: "The Gossips" features a conversational game of telephone that, when it loops back to the original gossip spreader, leaves her surprised, implying it's changed a lot.
* HeroicBSOD: "The Discovery" is about a young boy rummaging through his parents' drawers and discovering the AwfulTruth that Santa Claus is only a costume his father puts on every year at Christmas. The painting depicts the moment where the poor kid just stands there, wide-eyed, as his discovery fully sinks in.

* InternalDeconstruction: After he quit ''The Saturday Evening Post'' in 1963 over its attempts to get him to avoid civil rights issues and went to work for ''Look'' the following year, his illustrations increasingly came to resemble socially conscious subversions of the down-home Americana that had become his stock in trade, to the point that somebody today looking at "The Problem We All Live With" or "Murder in Mississippi" might think they were created as a DarkerAndEdgier satire of Rockwell for one of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games.
* MaltShop: "The Soda Jerk" depicts this stock midcentury American setting, with girls leaning over their milkshakes on the diner counter to moon at the server.

* MarilynManeuver: "The Cave of Winds" predates the TropeNamer, but still has a young girl pushing her skirts down after being caught over a blowing vent.
* MonochromeCasting: EnforcedTrope. Rockwell's covers for ''The Saturday Evening Post'' featured mostly white people, and the magazine's editors actually requested that he only depict people of color in subservient roles (some of them can be seen as waiters, bellhops, and shoe shiners). Rockwell, who recounted that he once had to paint a black man out of a group picture, chafed a bit at this rule, and it eventually led him to quit the ''Post'' and draw for ''Look'' instead. As the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement picked up steam in TheSixties, he began to paint black people more prominently. [[http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/rockwell-and-race-1963-1968/ Several later paintings]] address the civil rights struggle directly, and "The Golden Rule" notably depicts people of various races and religions together.
%%* MoodWhiplash: Look at a bunch of Rockwell's small-town life paintings, then check out "[[http://ayay.co.uk/backgrounds/paintings/norman_rockwell/lets-give-him-enough-and-on-time.jpg Let's Give Him Enough and On Time]]". Or "[[http://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/southern-justice-murder-in-mississippi-1965 Southern Justice]]". Or "[[https://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/the-problem-we-all-live-with-1935 The Problem We All Live With]]".
* NonIronicClown: Two of his paintings, "Off-Duty Clown" and "Clown", are dedicated to showing that clowns are ordinary people, just like us.
* PosthumousCollaboration: "ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} Visits Rockwell," originally done for a Garfield calendar and now [[http://www.zazzle.com/GarfieldandRockwell/ being merchandised]].

* ReadingIsCoolAesop: "Land of Enchantment" features an entire fantasy in the background of two reading children.

* RogueJuror: "Jury Room" depicts a young female juror calmly sitting while her male peers argue heatedly with her. The painting was meant to be a social critique on how women weren't allowed to participate in judicial matters at the time, and whether women could assess guilt or innocence based on evidence rather than emotion.

* ShoutOut: In his painting "Boy in Dining Car", a ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat'' comic book can be seen in the boy's pocket.
* SliceOfLife: Known for depicting small moments in American life. Best represented by "[[http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/1950-shuffletons-barbershop.html Shuffleton's Barbershop]]".

%%** The ''Post'' cover "A Day in the Life of a Girl".
* TakeThatCritics: As a jab against art critics who compared Rockwell's paintings unfavorably to the more trendy Abstract Modernism, "[[http://www.nrm.org/thinglink/text/Connoisseur.html The Connoisseur]]" shows a man surveying a splattered canvas in the style of Jackson Pollock. Rockwell took the trolling even further by entering the Pollock-style portion of the painting in an art exhibition in New York, signing it with an Italian PenName. ''It won first prize.''
* WorthIt: Pretty clearly the attitude of the girl sitting outside the principal's office in "The Shiner": she's grinning, implying she's happy she got the black eye.

Rockwell began his artistic career with ''Boys' Life'', the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, and he would continue to illustrate for them well into his eighties. He also did cover art for a number of other magazines, most notably for ''The Saturday Evening Post'' from 1916 to 1963, after which he provided illustrations for ''Look'' until that magazine closed in 1971.

* BackToCameraPose: ''The Connoisseur'' depicts an art expert examining a Creator/JacksonPollock-style painting from the back. Rockwell intended it as a commentary on how his realistic works clashed with those of abstract expressionists such as Pollock, and so the titular connoisseur's reaction to the painting is left ambiguous by his pose. (Rockwell was reportedly an admirer of Pollock, FWIW.)

%%* HeroicBSOD: "The Discovery"

%%* RogueJuror: "Jury Room"

%%* SweetheartSipping:
%%** [[http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/images/1921-Norman-Rockwell-Crush-advertisement-Orange-Crush-An-Orange-Crush-350-Digimarc.jpg This Orange Crush advertisement]].

!! Rockwell's artworks:

Norman Rockwell works with their own pages:

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