Norman Rockwell is perhaps the greatest American illustrator. He created countless scenes of proud family values and humorous subjects with just the right expressions or posture that tell a story instantly.

At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The New York School of Art (formerly The Chase School of Art). Two years later, in 1910, he left high school to study art at The National Academy of Design. He soon transferred to The Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman, Rockwell learned the technical skills on which he relied throughout his long career. By the age of 18, Rockwell worked as the art director for the magazine Boys Life. He sold his first five covers to the editor of the Saturday Evening Post when he was only 22. At that point, Rockwell averaged 10 covers per year.

He would begin with a small sketch, then made individual drawings of each element in the scene and finally created a full-sized charcoal drawing of the entire scene before producing the painting. Rockwell produced over 322 covers for the "Saturday Evening Post" from 1916-63.

His work was used in Brown & Bigelow Calendars from 1924-76 and in major magazines. Rockwell's illustrations for Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" are classics. Later in his career Rockwell used photography to project images onto his canvases. From 1960 until his death, Rockwell spent most of his time on large painted photomontages of contemporary personages and events.