Norman Rockwell - by Thomas Denenberg & Carolyn Bauer (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont explores how America's beloved illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) crafted an idealized vision of Vermont--nostalgic, resilient, and mythic--during his most prolific years in Arlington (1939-1953).

In these works, Rockwell offered a nation battered by the Great Depression and World War II a reassuring image of American life: orderly, self-reliant, and picturesque. Through paintings and illustrations, Rockwell captured not simply scenes of New England life, but a deeply rooted ethos--one in which democratic community, moral clarity, and quiet individualism flourished.

This book, and the accompanying exhibition, situates Rockwell's Vermont years within a broader creative milieu, highlighting the Arlington artist circle that included Mead Schaeffer (1898-1980), John Atherton (1900-1952), and Gene Pelham (1909-2004)-- all informally enticed to Arlington, Vermont. Together, they helped define a cultural moment in which Vermont was mythologized as democracy's granite-strong refuge. Even Rockwell's orchestrated friendship with Anna Mary "Grandma" Moses (1860-1961) was part of a wider crafting of New England as both authentic and marketable--where artists and audiences alike found a form of moral anchorage.

Featuring two newly acquired Rockwell paintings to Shelburne Museum celebrating Vermont's granite industry--long regarded as the state's "backbone"--Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont examines not only the imagery but the careful mythmaking that made Vermont central to Rockwell's enduring vision of America. Today, Rockwell's work is housed in major museums across the country, a testament to his profound influence as an artist. This book features works from the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Fleming Museum of Art, VT; Norman Rockwell Museum, MA; Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, CA; Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Lyman Orton Collection; Bennington Museum; Whitney Museum of Art.

About the Author

Thomas Denenberg is the director of Shelburne Museum, VT. Prior to moving to Vermont in 2011, he served as the chief curator and deputy director of the Portland Museum of Art (Portland, Maine), curator of American art at Reynolda House (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), and curator of American Decorative Arts at the Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford, Connecticut).

Carolyn Bauer is a curator at the Shelburne Museum, VT.