Rockwell

Perhaps Norman Rockwell will always be saddled with the reputation of a sentimental magazine illustrator who airbrushed American reality. But art historian Karal Ann Marling's generous reassessment strives with considerable success to rescue Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) from cultural cliché. "Rockwell fits readily into the grand continuum of realist masters," she contends persuasively. His life had its share of hardships, Marling notes, including his wife's alcoholism and his own bouts of depression; his depiction of American society became more somber over time and eventually led to his break with the Saturday Evening Post. Handsome reproductions of all of the famous images brace her argument.