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>> HE CAPTURED THE AMERICAN ESSENCE--AND OPTIMISM. NOW NORMAN ROCKWELL'S WORKS COME TO FREDERICKSBURG
An exhibition of Norman Rockwell paintings opens Saturday at the Gari Melchers Home and Studio
Date published: 10/29/2009
BY JIM HALL Doctors are prominent in the Norman Rockwell paintings that go on display here this weekend--and their depiction says much about the artist who drew them. Rockwell's doctors are Santa figures in three-piece suits, genial men with round bellies and the time and inclination to check on the health of a child's doll. But even in the early 20th century when Rockwell painted many of these figures, his vision was more wish than reality--a longing for an earlier era of love and caring. "Rockwell wasn't painting the way life really was. He was painting a fictional construct," said Joanna Catron, curator at Gari Melchers Home and Studio in Stafford County. The Melchers museum will host "Picturing Health: Norman Rockwell and the Art of Illustration." The display opens Saturday for a three-month visit. Featured will be 11 large-scale Rockwell oil paintings from the Pfizer collection, and 41 works by other illustrators. All focus on various aspects of health care. The travelling exhibit was organized more than two years ago by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. The Gari Melchers Home and Studio is its fourth stop. Catron said Rockwell was a good fit for the Melchers museum since both men painted in a realistic style and enjoyed telling stories through their pictures. "The most obvious reason" for hosting the exhibit, Catron added, "is that you can't find a more popular, more enduring artist." Rockwell (1894-1978) is best known for the 321 covers he did for the Saturday Evening Post magazine, and for the thousands of other paintings and illustrations he did over a 60-year career. The Melchers exhibit features the advertising work Rockwell did between 1929 and 1962 for Upjohn and Lambert, pharmaceutical companies, and American Optical, an eyeglass maker. Many of the paintings were featured in the companies' ads but do not contain their products. Instead, the sponsors understood the reflected goodwill they would enjoy by being associated with Rockwell. "They knew that his imagery, his signature, his whole Rockwell persona was an implicit stamp on their product," Catron said. For example, Upjohn wanted to portray the doctors in its ads as trusted, benevolent professionals.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 10/29/2009
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