The TattooistNorman Rockwell
Created in 1942
Brooklyn Museum
Oil on Canvas
43 X 33 in.
Norman Percevel Rockwell,(Feb. 3,1894-Nov. 8,1978), was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works were, and still are, very popular in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades. The most widely known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, Saying Grace, The Problem We All Live With, and the Four Freedoms series. He is also noted for his work for the Boy Scouts of America; producing covers for their publication Boys' Life, calendars, and other illustrations.
Norman Rockwell worked from various staged photographs while painting The Tattooist, which was used as The Saturday Evening Post cover on the March 4, 1944 issue. In Fact, Rockwell used photographs as an aid in doing most of his paintings. Many of Rockwell's friends and neighbors were models for his works. For the actual tattooist, he used one of his fellow illustrators from the Saturday Evening Post, and a neighbor, Clarence Decker, as the sailor. Schaeffer only appeared in this Rockwell illustration. Decker was ‘Master of the Grange’ in Arlington, and shows up in quite a few other Rockwell illustrations. For The Tattooist, Rockwell borrowed a tattoo machine from the Bowery tattooist Al Neville. Rockwell consulted with Al Neville, along with former sailors to insure the accuracy in his painting The Tattooist. I love the use of vivid color in this painting. The different shades being used helps to create the appearence of sweat, reflection of light, and contour in everything. I chose to blog on this piece because it is my husband's favorite by Rockwell. I honestly never really looked at Rockwell quite like I do now.
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