Spring 1998 - Norman Rockwell Museum

14jected halfueartedly, acceptedthe offer and immediately madeplans to build a studio next tothe garage beside the house.Architect and friend DeanParmalee worked with him todesign a comfortable space,complete with fieldstone walls,pegged floor and a fireplace witha faux balcony above it. It was acostly project, "but it was a goodplace to work."A successful artist and color-ful storyteller, Rockwell was afavorite guest at the area's manyfunctions. During these years, heand Irene Rockwell tended to gotheir separate ways. He went toEurope without her and workedat illustration seven days a week,and she acquired her own circleof friends. Of their 1930 divorce,he said, "We got along welltogether; never quarreled ormade a nuisance of ourselves.We gave parties, belonged to abridge club. Everybody used tolike us together. We just didn'tlove each other, sort of went ourown ways."For a year he rattled aroundNew York City trying to makethe best of things. On a trip toCalifornia with fellow artistClyde Forsythe, he met MaryBarstow, a schoolteacher fromother young artists who lived inNew Rochelle that they watchedhis every move. illustrator JohnFalter recalled how he and hisfriends would follow Rockwell ashe left his Prospect Street studio."We'd follow him down themain avenue at a respectabledistance, of course, notingeverything he did. If he pausedto look in a gallery or storewindow, we'd have a look alsoafter he moved on, trying tofigure out what had interestedhim ... I guess mostly we justwished that some of the magicwould rub off on us."The first home that Rockwellpurchased in New Rochelle wasan imitation English cottagesituated on Premium Point. "Allthrough the night the housecreaked and groaned as it settledinto the swampy ground .... Andone day as I was eating breakfastI heard a queer noise and,looking out, discovered that Ihad no front lawn. The lawn hadfallen into the septic tank."Rockwell wanted desperately tosell the house, but no one wouldbuy it. Then Irving Hansen, whoowned a fine house on the otherside of town at Lord KitchenerRoad, offered to trade with him."My mother lives in the nexthouse," Hansen explained, "and Alhambra. They married in 1930I'd like a good neighbor for her." and, after a short stay at theFlabbergasted, Rockwell ob- Hotel des Artistes where he hadpreviously resided, tlley took upresidence in the house on LordMAMARONECK AND NEW ROCHELLE WEREsites of significance during Norman Rockwell'syears in Westchester County, New York. Joinus on a tour exploring Rockwell's communitieswhich, during the 1920s and 1930s, also werehome to such famous other illustrators as].c.Leyendecker, Coles Phillips and EdwardPenfield. For further information, please call413-298-4100, extension 220.Kitchener Road, where sonsJarvis, Tom and Peter wereborn. In Mary, Rockwell hadfound a real friend. "I guess itsaved me," he said, "because afew months after our marriage Ibegan to have trouble with mywork. Now that I was settledagain and happy, the frenzied lifeI'd been leading ... fell in on melike a ton of bricks." A youngerbreed of illustrator was creatingwork that forced Rockwell toquestion his own pictures.Feelings of indecision and lowself-confidence nagged at himand he also was troubled by thedemanding social pressures thatwere distracting and unsatisfying.He felt that a change was inorder, and that a fresh environmentwould provide the materialand tranquillity he needed towork.Friend and model FredHildebrand urged him toexplore the Batten Kill River inVermont, and he was taken withits scenic beauty. He purchaseda white clapboard house and 60acres of land along the banks ofthe river, and over the winter of1938 had one of their two barnsconverted to a studio. In 1939,they took up permanent residencethere.Throughout his Westchesteryears, Norman Rockwell producedan enormous amount ofwork including Post covers,calendars, advertising images,and book illustrations for TomSawyer and Huckleberry Finn, aswell as illustrations for suchmagazines as Life, LiteraryDigest, Ladies' Home Journal andAmerican Magazine. His TheLand of Enchantment, a doublepagestory illustration for thePost, has graced the walls of thechildren's section of the NewRochelle Public Library since1935. The entrance sign that hecreated for the town still can beseen at Eastchester Road andPelhamdale Avenue. It reads,"New Rochelle, Rich in History,"and New Rochelle is trulyricher in its history for havinghad Norman Rockwell as one ofits citizens.