This oil on canvas was painted in 1943. Its dimensions are 116cm x90 cm. It is now part of the collections of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is also part of a series entitled ‘The Four Freedom Series’, inspired by a speech by American President Franklin Roosevelt. It was published as the cover of ‘The Saturday Evening Post’, like many of Rockwell’s paintings, who spent most of his career as an illustrator. His works are mostly about American every day life and he contributed in creating the myth of America.
The speech delivered by the American president in 1941 was about the war that America was about to fight to protect democracy and freedom. Therefore, the painting inspired by such a speech two years later can be regarded as a patriotic endeavor to participate in the propaganda effort to create a positive image of America and its values.
The very fact that Norman Rockwell worked after photographs of his fellow citizens enhances the meaning of the painting : any American family gathered around a meal for Thanksgiving could identify with the people in the picture, lifelike icons of simplicity, meekness, love, sharing and unity. By the way, the other title of the painting is ‘The Thanksgiving Picture’.
The origin of the Thanksgiving holiday, created by another President, Abraham Lincoln, after the tragedy of the Civil War to help American people unite after a four years’ war is to be remembered, although the symbols have changed. There is no mention here of the Native Americans or the Pilgrim Fathers, only a meal and a family gathering.
Yet, behind the impression of simplicity, there are also subtle references to the sacred…
