Norman Rockwell, Freedom of Speech, The Saturday Evening Post 1943, 1943
Objectives
Students will understand that:
Norman Rockwell made conscious artistic choices about how best to reach the audience he wished to serve when he created his “Four Freedoms” paintings.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address was Rockwell’s inspiration for the paintings.
the paintings served other purposes beyond illustrating Roosevelt’s four freedoms.
Focusing Statement
When Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his “Four Freedoms” State of the Union address in January of 1941, just shy of a year prior to America’s entry into World War II, he could never have guessed the impact it would make on the artist Norman Rockwell and how the inspiration the artist gained from that speech would display itself and ripple out across the nation to touch the hearts of so many Americans. In this lesson students will examine closely “Freedom of Speech”; they will read excerpts from the “Four Freedoms” address and describe how a sampling of posters and ads created during WWII connect to it. Students will also ponder what made these paintings so incredibly popular and well-loved during that time.
Examining Expressive Content
Show students Rockwell’s “Freedom of Speech” image but don’t show them the title. Ask:
What do you see? Tell me about this image.
What does your eye focus on first? Why?
Describe the speaker’s facial expression.
How is he dressed in comparison to the other men around him? What might you then surmise?
One senses that the speaker is saying something important and is being regarded with respect. What did Rockwell do to make us think that?
Describe the mood of the gathering. How did Rockwell accomplish that?
Look carefully for a clue to the purpose of the gathering.
Describe what you think is going on in this scene.
The title of this painting is “Freedom of Speech”. Norman Rockwell painted it in 1943. What was going on in the world then?
The good people of Arlington, Vermont, did not have the war on their minds when they gathered for a town meeting one evening during the dog days of the summer of 1942. On the contrary, in contrast to the typically grim reports coming from the Pacific and European theaters early in the year, it was good news that drew Arlington townsfolk to their meeting: town councilors had announced plans to build a new school. Only one resident, Jim Edgerton, objected to the proposed building, and in the course of the evening’s proceedings, he rose to speak.
No one at that town meeting agreed with Edgerton, but all of them honored his right to state his case, and all of them listened respectfully. Here was the first freedom, the freedom of speech, expressed in a simple, familiar American scene—the sort Rockwell excelled at depicting.”
In 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented his State of the Union address, he gave four reasons why the United States should be involved in World War II. He titled his speech, “The Four Freedoms.” Rockwell was so inspired by that speech that he created four paintings, known as “The Four Freedoms.” Don’t tell students what other freedoms are represented in the images. Set up around the room large versions of the other three images (they can be found online). Hand out the following WWII ads and posters and instruct students to place each ad or poster by its corresponding freedom.
Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech had struck a chord with Rockwell, but the lofty language contrasted sharply with Rockwell’s folksy images of small-town America. ‘I juggled the Four Freedoms around in my mind, reading a sentence here, a sentence there, trying to find a picture,’ he later recalled. ‘But it was so high-blown. Somehow I just couldn’t get my mind around it.’ So, while the Office of War Information (OWI) in Washington began churning out dozens of war posters, Rockwell sat pondering how he might bring such lofty words down to earth.
The Saturday Evening Post magazine featured The Four Freedoms in four of its issues in 1943 when the war was not going well. The Post’s editor, Ben Hibbs, said that they “quickly became the best-known and most appreciated paintings of that era.” After these issues appeared, the Post advertised sets of the images for sale and took 25,000 orders. The OWI then used The Four Freedoms to advertise its war bond drive and was successful in raising $133 million.
Now that you know more about it and the time when it was painted, what does “Freedom of Speech” represent to you? What more do you see in the image?
