I owe Rockwell an apology
Working at a newspaper requires thick skin. I’m a columnist and lifestyle writer, so I don’t get nearly as much pushback or rebuttals as the reporters. Nonetheless, I’ll occasionally get a hateful or condescending message from someone who doesn’t agree with an opinion I stated in a column.
In December I wrote a piece called “Your One and Only Christmas 2022.” The sentiment of the column focused on going against the grain and not letting societal pressure dictate how one spends and remembers their holiday season. Those of us who have lost a loved one or experienced a significant shift in family dynamic such as a divorce sometimes have a challenging time during the holidays.
To accentuate this point, I wrote these lines in that column, “I’m not sure where these images come from. Perhaps stereotypes from American sitcoms and movies, or Norman Rockwell paintings where a white middle class family with a dog sit around a perfectly adorned table full of food. Nonetheless, these visuals greatly impact our experiences and our mental health.”
When writing that section, I was thinking about that classic Rockwell painting where the woman is holding the Thanksgiving turkey. The painting is called “Freedom from Want,” and there are actually more than four family members in this painting, but you get my point.
About a week after publishing the column, I received an email from a reader who reprimanded me for portraying Rockwell in a negative light and for calling out the word “white” in my reference.
What I found most interesting is that my inclusion of Rockwell wasn’t about race or American culture of that time, it was about the pressure to create and sustain a perfect family unit, which is simply not a reality for millions of people. Granted, using the word “white” in my descriptor of his painting was probably unnecessary for the context of the column, but I was trying to conjure a specific painting in the minds of readers.
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All that being said, her email got me wondering about Rockwell as a person, so I did some research. What I found was captivating and completely shifted my perception of this talented artist whom I have always respected. While studying him, I had several questions in mind. What were his personal views on race and culture during his lifetime? Why are many of his paintings slanted toward the prototypical American Dream?
Come to find out, the reason many of Rockwell’s paintings highlight White American people doing everyday things is because that’s what The Saturday Evening Post expected of him. The editorial constraints and prejudices he worked under honed Rockwell’s allegiance to social commentary, even if that wasn’t always his desire. Because he’s most well-known for his work with The Post, it’s widely assumed he didn’t work to portray themes of racial inequality or discrimination in his work; however, this is untrue.
After leaving The Post in 1963, Rockwell created one of his most famous and important paintings, “The Problem We All Live With” (pictured). This symbolized a moment in the life of Ruby Bridges at six-years old being escorted by U.S. Marshalls to help end segregation in a school in the South, which is arguably the single most powerful painting of the Civil Rights movement. He went on to create many other paintings that highlighted the divide within our nation.
On the surface, Rockwell presented as a happy-go-lucky, genial, pipe-smoking artist but in private, he was deeply depressed and stoic, struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder, and distanced himself emotionally from his three wives, sons, brother, friends, editors and associates. He routinely went to therapy before it was considered commonplace.
When it comes to Rockwell, there is much more I could discover. In fact, I’ve become quite enamored by the man from researching him for this column. I feel like I owe him an apology if in any way, my column from several weeks ago portrayed him as a close-minded dispassionate individual when it appears he was anything but. This experience was a gentle reminder to never take things at face value. It’s always worth looking a little deeper.
(Susanna Shetley is writer, editor and digital medial specialist. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
