Picturing Health: Norman
Rockwell and the Art of Illustration
January 27 - May 28, 2007
Wall panel and label texts from the exhibition
- Introduction and label text
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- One of the most successful visual communicators of the
twentieth century, Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a keen observer of human
nature. Created over six decades, his carefully conceived narratives for
the masses gave voice to the ideals and aspirations of real people and
served as a reassuring guide during an era of sweeping social and technological
change.
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- Beyond the legendary status that he achieved some forty
years before his death, Norman Rockwell was a masterful painter and a complex
man. A sophisticated technician with deep knowledge of the history of art
and a sometimes tortured relationship to his own work, he never claimed
to portray reality. Instead, he painted "life as I would like it to
be," purposefully avoiding "the agonizing crisis and tangles"
that experience often presents. Highly naturalistic, his clearly articulated
vision inspired the belief that he was reporting on actual stories rather
than creating them, engaging a public who aspired to the life depicted
in his art.
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- Norman Rockwell's prominence and the confidence and sense
of well-being that his art inspired prompted many corporations to seek
him out for commissions intended to raise the profiles of their products.
Approximately one quarter of the artist's extensive body of four thousand
known works was created for advertising. By the 1920s, Rockwell's imagery,
signature, and persona were sought as an implicit stamp of quality for
products and heir makers.
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- Picturing Health: Norman Rockwell and the Art of Illustration features original paintings by Norman Rockwell from the collection
of Pfizer Inc, which are among the finest examples of the artist's imagery
for advertising. Heartfelt portrayals, they inspired Americans to view
themselves and their physicians with optimism, implying that our emotional
lives and sense of physical well-being are closely intertwined. Norman
Rockwell's paintings exploring the doctor/patient relationship, the importance
of physical fitness, and health and healing across the generations are
accompanied by original works reflecting similar themes by fourteen of
today's most prominent visual commentators. Editorial artworks created
for the nation's most prestigious publications examine contemporary perspectives
on subjects explored more than fifty years ago in Norman Rockwell's art.
Their work speaks to the time-honored power of narrative images, which
have had, and continue to have, a singular impact on public perception.
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- Family Doctor: Norman Rockwell Paintings from the
Pfizer Collection
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- From 1929 to 1961, Norman Rockwell created images for
use in the advertising campaigns of two pharmaceutical companies and an
optical company. These portrayals inspired us to view ourselves with optimism
and to see our family doctors as kind, friendly caregivers. They also presented
the notion that health is affected as much by our emotional lives as by
our physical well-being. Through his use of everyday scenes, Rockwell conveyed
the hopefulness and idealism that characterized his view of life. This
group of eleven paintings is on loan from the art collection of Pfizer
Inc., one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.
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- Reminiscing about the early part of his career, Norman
Rockwell once said, "You could do pictures for ads in those days."
By "picture," Rockwell meant he could tell a story rather than
simply design an image around a product. Rockwell's advertising illustrations
for pharmaceuticals for Lambert Pharmacal, and The Upjohn Company and eyeglass
lenses for American Optical are examples of this softer, more indirect
method of marketing. Not only did his narratives convince consumers to
buy, his signature provided tacit endorsement that enhanced a company's
image through association.
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- Rockwell's way of viewing people and situations developed
during a lifetime of reading the novels of Charles Dickens. As a lad, he
often preferred reading Dickens' novels to playing outdoors. Fascinated
by the illustrations, his own rendering of characters, like the family
doctor, would be inspired by memories of these images and by the attributes
he found most desirable: kindness, compassion and patience.
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- In this collection of advertising illustrations for the
health industry, Rockwell tells his stories through such immediately recognizable
scenes of everyday life that we may overlook the aesthetic qualities of
composition, detail, and color and tonal harmonies that lift them to works
of art.
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- The Same Advice I Gave Your Dad Listerine Often 1929
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- Part of an extremely successful advertising campaign,
Rockwell's painting with Lambert Pharmacal's tag line, "The Same Advice
I Gave Your Dad," was published in more than eight publications including
American Magazine, Literary Digest, and Ladies' Home Journal
from 1929 to 1943. Originally formulated in 1879 as a disinfectant for
surgical procedures, Listerine was found to be an excellent oral antiseptic.
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- Rockwell's depiction closely follows the company's message,
"Many of you can remember your old family doctor and his little black
bag with Listerine Antiseptic tucked in the corner. You felt better the
minute he entered the house."
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- Oil on canvas
- Print advertisement for Lambert Pharmacal: Listerine
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- If Your Eyesight Controls Your "Great Decisions" 1929
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- The American Optical Company began creating eyewear in
1833. In 1929 a series of advertisements illustrated by Rockwell was published
for their new wide-angle Tillyer lenses, said to be "accurate to the
very edge." Targeted toward those whose sight may suffer from the
effects of aging, the ad advised, "If your eyesight controls your
decisions-as it does-help it with the most accurate lenses science has
made."
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- Oil on canvas on board
- Print advertisement for American Optical: Tillyer Lenses
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- Is It Play for Eyes Too?
1929
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- During this early period of Rockwell's career, he often
used an attic setting in his paintings. The diagonal line of the garret's
pitched roof provides a perfect frame to direct the viewer's eye down to
the window, which leads one's focus to the model airplane and ultimately,
to the young man's face. The dramatic play of light against dark is another
benefit of the small, single light source.
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- Oil on canvas on board
- Print advertisement for American Optical: Tillyer Lenses
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates 1938
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- In the fall of 1938, the Boston-based Forbes Lithograph
Company asked Rockwell to do a painting for a "point-of-purchase"
display for their client The Upjohn Company. The Upjohn Company, of Kalamazoo,
Michigan, was founded in 1885 when William Erastus Upjohn invented the
"friable" pill-one that could be easily crushed or dissolved.
Replacing liquid medicines, pills were often so hard that they didn't dissolve
in a person's digestive system. With this new technology, vitamins in pill
form became a large part of Upjohn's market, and the image of a thumb crushing
a pill became the company's trademark.
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- To show Upjohn an example of Rockwell's work, Forbes
representative Percy Gillingham borrowed and sent to Kalamazoo the charcoal
drawing of Rockwell's recently published Saturday Evening Post story
illustration, Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates. Upjohn's executives
liked the image so much that they asked to purchase the final painting.
The painting of a kindly family doctor, typical of Rockwell's characterizations
of the period, suited the company's advertising campaign and launched a
series of eight new images for Upjohn that would appear in pharmacy window
displays and thousands of doctors' offices, hospitals and clinics throughout
the country.
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- Oil on canvas
- Story illustration for The Saturday Evening Post,
- December 24, 1938
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- He's Going to Be Taller Than Dad
1939
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- It was Upjohn's policy to give Norman Rockwell ample
latitude to express himself, offering only such gentle guidelines as "all
ages need vitamins." Rockwell was asked to submit two or three idea
sketches at a time. Once into the project, the company might steer him
toward a desired goal, but not in a heavy-handed way.
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- For the boy measuring his height in Rockwell's picture,
Upjohn asked that he "represent a good average, healthy, attractive
American child," and that the setting "suggest a home rather
than an interior of an institution." These suggestions were superfluous,
given Rockwell's natural inclinations and the "types" that were
his stock in trade. When Upjohn received Rockwell's charcoal drawing, they
asked him to change the boy's expression to one that looked less frightened
and to make him appear to be stretching more, as a child would under those
circumstances. Growth lines on the wall needed more definition and a doll
on a corner shelf needed to be replaced with a boy's toy. Most interesting
of their requests was that Rockwell's name be very prominent. As much as
his artwork, Rockwell's signature was selling their brand.
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- Oil on canvas
- Print advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- When the Doctor Treats Your Child 1939
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- After they had seen Norman Rockwell's Doc Mellhorn
and the Pearly Gates, Upjohn executives wanted their own painting of
a lovable old doctor. They asked Rockwell to paint a doctor writing a prescription
for an average happy American family. Just as he had posed his wife Mary
for the Doc Mellhorn painting, Rockwell enlisted her as the mother
with three children. At the time, the Rockwell family included three sons,
born between 1931 and 1936, but they were not recruited for the image.
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- Oil on canvas
- Print advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- The Muscleman 1941
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- Norman Rockwell always submitted a charcoal study of
his idea to Upjohn before proceeding to the painting stage. When Upjohn
executives saw Rockwell's sketch for The Muscleman, they asked him
to change the spotted dog to the all-white one in He's Going to be Taller
Than Dad. Representing Rockwell's point of view, Percy Gillingham assured
them that Rockwell felt it would be a mistake to have a white dog, since
the pattern was purposeful "to concentrate the interest around the
youngster's head."
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- Oil on canvas
- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- Doctor and Doll 1942
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- For his fourth painting for Upjohn, Rockwell proposed
his idea of a doctor in a little girl's nursery. Upjohn thought his sketch
seemed very familiar. Forbes Lithograph Company representative Percy Gillingham
replied that it was true it had been used many years before as a Saturday
Evening Post cover, but that Rockwell would bring it up to date and
fill it with "1941 character." He persuasively argued that "kindliness
as exemplified in the idea as such is perennially fresh and cannot too
often be stressed." As a display ad, the company wanted Rockwell to
"keep a big composition," for it had to be seen at a distance
by those passing a pharmacy window.
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- Rockwell began this painting during a 1942 winter getaway
in Alhambra, California. He chose his neighbor Eli Harvey, a renowned animal
sculptor, to pose as the doctor. His charcoal study was sent to Upjohn
in Kalamazoo, and changes were requested. Now back in Vermont, Rockwell
was faced with some re-posing-the little girl had been rejected as looking
too passive and too old, the doll had to be more modern, not "stuffed,"
and he was asked to "by all means, put some pajamas on the doll."
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- Oil on canvas
- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- Weighing Baby 1943
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- Rockwell sent his charcoal drawing of Weighing Baby
to Forbes Lithograph in February, 1943. Three months later, on May 15,
Rockwell's Arlington, Vermont studio was destroyed by fire. Despite this
huge setback-all of his artists' materials, reference files, props and
costumes were lost-he managed to begin work on the oil by the end of May.
Fellow Saturday Evening Post illustrator Mead Schaeffer, who lived
nearby, shared his studio with Rockwell while he looked for a new home
and built a new studio.
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- Upjohn had many suggestions for Rockwell's Weighing
Baby. A pad of paper for recording the baby's weight had to be replaced
by a less business-like record book. Rockwell was urged to "open the
baby's eyes and keep him smiling and happy" and to "keep the
mother young looking." The father seemed too dressed up and too much
like a movie actor. Because the parents' faces were foreshortened, altering
their expressions or age would have been daunting for a less accomplished
portraitist.
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- In November 1943, a request came for the next Upjohn
picture. A succession of minor illnesses befell Rockwell-one in the fall,
one that winter and another the following spring-delaying any new work.
Rockwell broke the news in March that it would be physically impossible
for him to continue the series that year.
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- Oil on canvas
- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- Doctor and Boy Looking at Thermometer 1954
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- Rockwell wasn't approached to do more work for Upjohn
until 1953, when he was asked to do "another old doctor painting."
The request stated, "The idea, composition, etc. to be altogether
of your own choosing. You set the price. Anything you say would be entirely
acceptable." This was persuasive enough for Rockwell to reply that
he would do it, but later than suggested. He proposed doing a painting
similar to his 1947 Saturday Evening Post drawing of a doctor
and boy looking at a thermometer, but with the doctor's eyes turned "slightly
toward the boy with just a touch of humor about his eyes and mouth. In
other words he knows the boy does not have an abnormal temperature and
is amused with the boy's curiosity. I think it will give the picture a
great deal more human interest. In fact if you want to use a title, wouldn't
'a case of schoolitis' be a good one?"
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- Oil on canvas
- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
- The Veterinarian 1961
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- In 1956, Upjohn asked Rockwell to do a painting for its
new line of veterinary products. Upjohn wanted to be associated with the
modern scientific approach to animal health, and requested someone youthful
as the subject. Rockwell suggested "a young, intelligent veterinary
perhaps looking down a very cute dog's throat. The dog being held by its
loving boy master."
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- In December of 1957, Rockwell wrote that he couldn't
finish the painting that year due to his assignments for the Saturday
Evening Post and Boy Scouts of America. This began a series of letters
between Rockwell and John Upjohn in which Upjohn pleaded and Rockwell procrastinated
for two years. Whether due to emotional despondency, exhaustion, or overwork,
Rockwell did not tell Upjohn of his wife Mary's death in August 1959. In
July 1960, after Upjohn had shifted budgeted funds for three years, he
received word from Rockwell's secretary that Rockwell was well underway
with the painting. On the reverse of Upjohn's next letter, Rockwell jotted
"Leviticus verse 18/Bk 19/Talmud Love Thy/Neighbor as/Thyself."
He was planning his next Post cover. Golden Rule was published
April 1, 1961, the same week The Veterinarian was shipped
to Upjohn. Rockwell's sweet painting of a small boy holding his beagle
for examination was up against tough competition for his attention during
the winter of 1961.
- Oil on canvas
- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- The Art of Modern Medicine
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- On January 1, 2006, the first of an estimated seventy-seven
million baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, turned sixty. Expected to
live longer than any previous generation and with more resources at their
disposal than ever before, many of these active individuals take the issue
of health and well-being seriously. Their buying power, desire for information,
and willingness to advocate for their own care has sparked an unprecedented
infusion of health-related articles and publications, both in print and
on the world-wide web.
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- During the mid-twentieth century, Norman Rockwell's focus
on the interaction between physician and patient invited consideration
of the humanitarian aspects rather than the technicalities of illness.
His poignant narratives for the health industry, published in conjunction
with compelling advertising copy, were intended to influence the purchasing
behavior and though patterns of a broad audience. During Rockwell's prime,
illustration was a primary visual mechanism of mass media, entertaining
and informing the public while fueling American commerce.
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- A dynamic medium, illustration is in a process of continual
transformation, responding to cultural and philosophical shifts and reflecting
changes in the marketplace. Today, illustrated images are enlisted to provide
visual and intellectual stimulation rather than documentation. Narrative
storytelling has given way to more conceptual, stylistic approaches in
which sentiment is neutralized, realism is modernized, and illustration
is wed to the broader principles of design. Changes in publishing content,
over time, have inspired artists to find new and distinctive ways to communicate
important messages.
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- The outstanding contemporary artists represented in Picturing
Health: Norman Rockwell and the Art of Illustration have tackled health-related
subjects as particular and diverse as the mind-body connection, the study
of genetics, the emergence of automated medicine, caring for aging parents,
the viability of herbal remedies, navigating the managed care system, and
self-diagnosis in the information age. Their vibrant images, borne of diverse
methodologies and aesthetic approaches, make complex material accessible
and troublesome topics approachable for millions who are fortunate enough
to encounter their art at the simple turn of a page.
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(above: Frances Jetter, "You're Never Too Old,"
2003. Illustration for The New York Times, Special Section on Women's
Health, June 22, 2003. Linocut on paper. Collection of the artist. ©2003
Frances Jetter)
(above: Cathie Bleck, "Guidance," n.d.
Illustration for Kaiser Permanente. Scratchboard. Collection of the artist.
© Cathie Bleck)
(above: "Mother and Child," Cathie Bleck, 1989.
Illustration for the Alan Guttmacher Foundation, 1988-1989 Annual Report.
Scratchboard. Collection of the artist. ©1989 Cathie Bleck)
(above: Juliette Borda, "Herbal vs. Traditional
Medicine," 2004. Gouache on paper. Collection of the artist. ©2004
Juliette Borda)
(above: Elwood Smith, "Healthy Eating,"
2000. Illustration for Healthy Living, January 2000. Watercolor and
ink on paper. Collection of the artist. ©2000 Elwood Smith)
(above: "Betting Your Life," Guy Billout,
2001. Illustration for The New Yorker, January 29, 2001. Ink on paper.
Collection of the artist. ©2001 Guy Billout and The New Yorker)
(above: Mark Ulriksen, "Dissing Doctors,"1999.
Illustration for Smart Money. Acrylic on board. Collection of the
artist)
Checklist from the exhibition
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- Melinda Beck
- Regulating Your Blood Sugar 2002
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- Illustration for Great Life, March 2002
- Digital
- Collection of the artist
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- Cathie Bleck
- Mother and Child 1989
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- Illustration for the Alan Guttmacher Foundation, 1988-1989
Annual Report
- Scratchboard
- Collection of the artist
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- Cathie Bleck
- Guidance n.d.
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- Illustration for Kaiser Permanente
- Scratchboard
- Collection of the artist
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- Cathie Bleck
- The Star Gene n.d.
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- Illustration for Kaiser Permanente
- Scratchboard
- Collection of the artist
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- Cathie Bleck
- The Touch 1990
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- Illustration for the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine
- Scratchboard
- Collection of the artist
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- Guy Billout
- Automated Medicine 2000
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- Illustration for The New Yorker
- Ink on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Guy Billout
- Second Opinions 2000
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- Illustration for The New Yorker
- Ink on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Guy Billout
- Betting Your Life 2001
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- Illustration for The New Yorker, January 29, 2001
- Ink on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Guy Billout
- The Grief Industry 2004
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- Illustration for The New Yorker, January 26, 2004
- Ink on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Juliette Borda
- Herbal vs. Traditional Medicine 2004
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- Gouache on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Juliette Borda
- Aging Parents 2005
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- Illustration for Family Circle, October 2005
- Gouache on board
- Collection of the artist
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- Juliette Borda
- Pinch 1999
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- Illustration for Fit Pregnancy
- Gouache on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Juliette Borda
- Good Fat, Bad Fat 2005
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- Illustration for Shape, October 2005
- Gouache on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Juliette Borda
- Pear-Shaped 2002
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- Illustration for AARP, May 2002
- Gouache on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Juliette Borda
- Fast Food Exercise 2005
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- Illustration for Mother Jones, November/December
2005
- Gouache on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Cora Lynn Deibler
- Super Star Docs: Caring, Compassion, Credentials 2001
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- Illustration for Inside MS, Summer 2001
- Watercolor and ink on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Cora Lynn Deibler
- Super Star Docs: Monkey Wrench Award 2001
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- Illustration for Inside MS, Summer 2001
- Watercolor and ink on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Teresa Fasolino
- Vegetables in Landscape 1989
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- Cover illustration for The Complete Vegetable Gardener's
Sourcebook
- by Duane Newcomb and Karen Newcomb, Prentice Hall, 1989
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of the artist
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- Teresa Fasolino
- Healthful Still Life in Landscape n.d.
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- Brochure illustration for Artworks
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of the artist
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- Frances Jetter
- Breaking Free From Pain 1997
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- Illustration for the Duke University Alumni Magazine,
July/August 1997
- Linocut and assorted metals on board
- Collection of the artist
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- Frances Jetter
- You're Never Too Old 2003
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- Illustration for The New York Times, Special Section
on Women's Health,
- June 22, 2003
- Linocut on paper
- Collection of the artist
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- Gregory Manchess
- Untitled 2006
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- Mural painting for the American College of Cardiologists,
- Washington, D.C.
- Oil on linen
- Collection of the artist
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- Norman Rockwell
- Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates 1938
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- Story illustration for The Saturday Evening
Post,
- December 24, 1938
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell
- Doctor and Boy Looking at Thermometer 1954
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- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell
- Doctor and Doll 1942
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- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell
- He's Going to Be Taller Than Dad 1939
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- Print advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell
- If Your Eyesight Controls Your "Great Decisions" 1929
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- Print advertisement for American Optical: Tillyer lenses
- Oil on canvas on board
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell
- Is It Play for Eyes Too?
1929
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- Print advertisement for American Optical: Tillyer lenses
- Oil on canvas on board
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell
- The Muscleman 1941
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- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell
- The Same Advice I Gave Your Dad Listerine Often 1929
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- Print advertisement for Lambert Pharmacal: Listerine
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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- Norman Rockwell
- The Veterinarian 1961
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- Display advertisement for The Upjohn Company
- Oil on canvas
- Collection of Pfizer Inc
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