Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894 and died on November 8, 1978. He was a 20^th-century American painter and illustrator. In 1910 he abandoned his studies and joined the Art Students League of New York, where he perfected his technique with George Bridgman and Thomas Fogarty. At sixteen, he illustrated his first book, Tell me why, Stories.

It’s May 20, 1916 that would be his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post magazine. He then became the painter of the average American and his name was forever identified with this review which it performed the most famous illustrations and covers up to 1963. The style of Norman Rockwell has been called a storyteller. As illustrator, he made sure that his works were in perfect correspondence with the texts he illustrated.

“Russian Schoolroom”

“Russian Schoolroom” is an oil painting by Norman Rockwell which was painting in 1967. It’s a reference of the Moscow classroom. This is a class attentive to their teacher’s lesson. The teacher is presumably outside the visual frame. A bust of Vladimir Lenin is standing on the left. The children are wearing school uniforms. On the wall of the background, there is writing in Russian “Study and learn”. Only one of pupil is looking away on the right, like a schoolboy losing focus and finding something more interesting outside of the classroom.

It shows that the pupils are looking and listening to the teacher which is not on the frame, so we can imagine that they’re listening to the bust which represents Vladimir Lenin, the statesman of the Russia. He was the first man who brought communism. This bust shows the rigor, the equality. But one pupil is not looking to Lenin’s bust, he represents the liberty of thought.

The moral is with more study, extensive data and attention to detail I believe that the assertion that people born in certain months may have a higher likelihood of being happier and more successful than others in the future. But, as of yet, this study is not sufficient.