By Darla McCammon

Moving beyond Halloween and its goblins, we will concentrate on another American tradition: Thanksgiving and its gobblers.

We recently looked at a famous painting of a turkey done by John James Audubon that was included in his “The Birds of America” book and sold for over $8 million back in 2000. This week we will look at another of America’s favorite artists, Norman Rockwell, who created numerous paintings with a Thanksgiving theme.

Rockwell painted for several magazines and periodicals other than the most famous “Saturday Evening Post.” One of those was “The Country Gentleman.” In this series of covers Rockwell, known for his ability to depict all the foibles of human nature, created a character called “Cousin Reginald,” who was a city kid unaccustomed to the rough and tumble lives of his country cousins. Cousin Reginald was the scapegoat for over 15 covers in this magazine, almost all to the entertainment of his rugged cousins, who seldom rescued him from his predicament, but evolved into riotous laughter over each escapade.

One of the more famous covers was titled “Cousin Reginald Catches the Thanksgiving Turkey.” As you can see, quite the reverse is true as Reginald runs for his life. This cover painting appeared in “The Country Gentleman” on Dec. 1, 1917. Note the unsympathetic cousins giggling safely in the background as Reginald runs.

Rockwell was born in 1894 and began successfully painting at 14 years of age—a true prodigy. In his life he created over 4,000 original works and also illustrated some very famous books, including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He had a great affinity and partnership with the Boy Scouts of America and created their annual calendar, now highly prized by collectors, over the astounding period of fifty years beginning in 1925.

Critics were often unkind to Rockwell’s art, calling it “banal,” but the American public embraced it and in later years, most critics came around, particularly when he put his sharp wit and excellent artistic execution skills to work on such evocative pieces as “The Problem We All Live With,” a painting showing a young Ruby Bridges being escorted to school by federal marshals. Sometimes those who can’t create themselves become savage critics. Rockwell’s work has been elevated in spite of those narrow-minded critics and commands high prices at auction today.

Upcoming and Current Events

Please contact Darla McCammon at [email protected] or (574) 527-4044 if you have an event to mention.

• Through Dec. 28, photography by Florida artist Darlene Romano, including her version of some of Audubon’s depictions of American shorebirds, is on display at Warsaw City Hall Gallery, 102 S. Buffalo St. It is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, except holidays. Online views of more work by this artist can be found at www.darleneromano.com.
• The LAA art gallery fall members’ show and competition is open now. Go visit the exceptional work that was turned in for this exhibit, located at 302 E. Winona Ave. It is open from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m Wednesday through Saturday. A reception is coming up to announce the winning entries.