2OLOTR - Norman Rockwell Paintings at The Norman Rockwell Museum

After viewing the MAD Magazine exhibit, we walked into the main gallery to see the work of American illustrator, Norman Rockwell.  The museum was very, very crowded so it was sometime hard to see and to photograph the paintings.

I've only seen Rockwell's work in magazines so it was astonishing to see how big some of these paintings are. Many of them were almost life size like The Four Freedoms (1943)

Freedom from Fear

Freedom of Speech

Rockwell staged his paintings to tell a story using local people and props. He would take photographs of the setting so he could finish the painting. Preserved in a glass case was the worn, leather jacket that the town meeting member wore.

Freedom to Worship

Freedom from Want

The Runaway (Study, 1958)

The Runaway (1958)

It was also a surprise to see studies of some of the paintings. We forget that a lot of work goes on behind the scenes before artwork is produced. Even for the big name.

"Norman Rockwell's boyhood experience growing up just north of New York City provided inspiration for this popular painting. I ran away from home when I was a kid in Mamaronek, and mooned around the shore, kicking stones and watching the whitecaps on Long Island Sound. Pretty soon it began to get dark , and a cold wind sprang up and moaned around the trees. So I went home. Many years later, Rockwell brought eight-year old Ed Locke and Massachusetts State Trooper Dick Clemens to a Howard Johnson's in Pittsfield, Massachusetts where they were photographed as models for The Runaway. After completing a first canvas capturing the restaurant's modern decor, Rockwell rejected it and produced a second version with a sparer setting. (Often thought to be Joe's Diner in Lee, Massachusetts) Asked by Clemens why he made the change, the artist explained that a rural background would give the impression that the little boy had gotten further out of town."

The Gossips (study, charcoal on paper, 1948)

No Swimming (1921)

Most of us think of or remember Rockwell's work on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. He left that publication to do covers for Look magazine where he had more freedom to express his political views of the time. Such as the painting above New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967)

The Problem We Live With (1963)

"for Look Magazine was based upon an actual event, when six-year old, Ruby Bridges, was escorted by U.S. Marshalls on her first day at an all white New Orleans school. Rockwell's depiction of the vulnerable but dignified girl clearly condemns the actions of those who protest her presence and object to desegregation. The piece commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling that separate is not equal in America's public schools" 

Golden Rule (1961)

The Lineman (1948)

Murder in Mississippi (April 6 - 13, 1965)

"In the beginning of 1965, Rockwell began work on a piece about the June 21, 1964 murders of three, young civil rights workers.  Michael Schwerner, and his chief aide, James Chaney, were in Philadelphia, Mississippi to help train volunteers like Andrew Goodman, who along with other college students were working to expand voter registration as part of the Mississippi Summer Project. The anatomy of Murder in Mississippi illuminates Rockwell's intensive focus on the incident and process of making a painting that expressed his outrage. Veering from his habit of working on five or six projects at a time, he ignored other commissions, and in an intensive five-week session gathered research and produced charcoal preliminaries, and oil color study, and a large final painting. In an interview later in life, Rockwell recalled having been directed by the Post to remove an African-American from a group picture because the magazine's policy dictated showing black people in service industry jobs only. Freed from such restraints at Look, he sought to correct the editorial prejudices that had been reflected in his previous work. On April 14, Rockwell sent his final painting to Look. On the 29th he received word that Look had decided to use his color study rather than the final painting. In a letter to Look editor art director Allen Hurlburt, Rockwell wrote, I tried in a big way...to make an angry picture. If I just had a big of Ben Shahn in me it would have helped."

Girl at Mirror (1954)

2OLOTR (Two Old Ladies on the Road)

2OLOTR - Mad Magazine Exhibit at The Norman Rockwell Museum

Two Old Ladies on the Road. Besides visiting Richard Widmark's grave in Roxbury, Connecticut, I wanted to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. 

On our runaway trips, our pace is leisurely. If we want to do something, we do, but not necessarily at the crack of stupid. Per the Rockwell website, I purchased tickets online for a Monday visit. We figured all the Leaf Peepers would have gone home. So we had a leisurely morning and arrived at the museum around 11 AM only to find it was packed with Weebles (Elderly. Even though we are now in that category we're at the young end of the spectrum) Not only packed in the parking lot, but people were arriving by busloads! 

Teague found a place to park We were greeted by these whimsical sculptures by sculptor, Peter Rockwell, one of Rockwell's sons.

The day we visited there was also an exhibition What Me Worry? The Art and Humor of Mad Magazine.

Before Alfred E Newman became the face of Mad Magazine, there were earlier prototypes like Billy Riley for cigars

and these characters selling World War II War Bonds

Alfred E Newman, the man, himself.

My dad was a voracious reader, but he didn't like us to read comic books. They were verboten especially Mad Magazine. That didn't stop The Brother from bringing them into the house and letting me look at them even though at the age of 8 or so (The Brother is 6 years my senior), I didn't really understand a lot of the magazine. . So wandering around the exhibit gave me the same feeling of doing something I wasn't supposed to. Sorry, Dad.

The height of the Cold War brought us Spy Vs Spy. This was my favorite. I hope you'll be able to embiggen the images to read text.

Son of Mad

The Headless Horseman

A rather unflattering satire of The Girl with a Pearl

Scully and Muldar from The X-Files as American Gothic

Famous Aliens

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I started feeling better from the sinus cold.

2. I felt well enough to go on the runaway weekend to the Berkshires with Teague, but first a stop in western Connecticut because there was something I really wanted to do.

3. Sightseeing around Stockbridge

4. Head Stoning in the Stockbridge Cemetery and

5. a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum

How was your week?

T Stands for Strawberry Banke Museum

On the way to Ogunquit, Teague and I stopped at the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It's a collection of old house from the Puddle Dock neighborhood. From the website: "Today Strawbery Banke is unique among outdoor history museums, sharing change over time in the same waterfront neighborhood. The Museum interprets a long span of history, from the history of Indigenous peoples (artifacts dating back to 10,000-12,000 years ago), to the present day."

I thought the houses, one dating from 1695, were moved from their foundations and brought to this property. But this was a real neighborhood with all these old houses popping up as the neighborhood expanded.

For this T Day post various cups, tea, and coffee sets from some of the house.

Teacups and Blue Willow Ware in the Abbott House and corner store. The house was built in 1720, but the house is used to interpret life in 1943.

Listening to music while penning a letter to a sweetheart at the Front

The coffee pot is on

Relaxing with a cup of coffee and a copy of Life magazine.

A pewter coffee service at the William Pitt Tavern built in 1766. See what life was like in 1777

Listen to gossip or read what's happening while waiting for the Fly Stagecoach which traveled between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts, a mere 3 day journey.

The dining room in the Thomas Bailey Aldritch Memorial built in 1797 and shows what life was like in 1919

Thomas Bailey Aldritch was an author. His most famous work The Story of a Bad Boy. 

The house belonged to his grandfather, Thomas Bailey, and was the setting for Aldritch's novel.

"Upon his death, his widow Lilian purchased the Aldrich House and created a memorial to her husband. Each room was faithfully recreated using imagery from The Story of a Bad Boy. Thomas Bailey Aldrich House Museum opened in 1908, and Strawbery Banke restored Mrs. Aldrich's vision, which re-opened the house in the 1990s."

A curious addition to the dining room, a crossbow, arrow, and apples as an illustration of a scene from the novel:

"At the tenth representation, my dramatic career was brought to a close by an unfortunate circumstance. We were playing the drama of “William Tell, the Hero of Switzerland.” Of course I was William Tell, in spite of Fred Langdon, who wanted to act that character himself. I wouldn't let him, so he withdrew from the company, taking the only bow and arrow we had. I made a cross-bow out of a piece of whalebone, and did very well without him. We had reached that exciting scene where Gessler, the Austrian tyrant, commands Tell to shoot the apple from his son's head. Pepper Whitcomb, who played all the juvenile and women parts, was my son. To guard against mischance, a piece of pasteboard was fastened by a handkerchief over the upper portion of Whitcomb's face, while the arrow to be used was sewed up in a strip of flannel. I was a capital marksman, and the big apple, only two yards distant, turned its russet cheek fairly towards me.

I can see poor little Pepper now, as he stood without flinching, waiting for me to perform my great feat. I raised the crossbow amid the breathless silence of the crowded audience consisting of seven boys and three girls, exclusive of Kitty Collins, who insisted on paying her way in with a clothes-pin. I raised the cross-bow, I repeat. Twang! went the whipcord; but, alas! instead of hitting the apple, the arrow flew right into Pepper Whitcomb's mouth, which happened to be open at the time, and destroyed my aim.

I shall never be able to banish that awful moment from my memory. Pepper's roar, expressive of astonishment, indignation, and pain, is still ringing in my cars. I looked upon him as a corpse, and, glancing not far into the dreary future, pictured myself led forth to execution in the presence of the very same spectators then assembled.

Luckily poor Pepper was not seriously hurt; but Grandfather Nutter, appearing in the midst of the confusion (attracted by the howls of young Tell), issued an injunction against all theatricals thereafter, and the place was closed; not, however, without a farewell speech from me, in which I said that this would have been the proudest moment of my life if I hadn't hit Pepper Whitcomb in the mouth. Whereupon the audience (assisted, I am glad to state, by Pepper) cried “Hear! Hear!” I then attributed the accident to Pepper himself, whose mouth, being open at the instant I fired, acted upon the arrow much after the fashion of a whirlpool, and drew in the fatal shaft. I was about to explain how a comparatively small maelstrom could suck in the largest ship, when the curtain fell of its own accord, amid the shouts of the audience."

Built-in china storage in the dining room.

Someone scribed the initials, RB 

The garden at the Aldritch house

and the seated arbor looking towards the house from the street

If you are ever in Portsmouth, try to stop in at this unique museum. The docents are knowledgeable, friendly, and have wonderful anecdotes about the various houses. There are also reenactors, like the shopkeeper at the Corner Store who will happily chat about their business and what was happening at the time.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.