Sponsored by Scotty Ingram. Norman Rockwell’s Favorite Child Model.
Sign Up for Our Newsletter
Get special insider offers. Be the first to know about new products and services. Free advice, tips, reminders, and invitations to our events. Sign up now!
Four pages of rare photographs from my personal collection. (Click on the photo to zoom in.)
Even if it was the middle of a hot summer, I had to dress the part. Here my mother prepares me for the posing session."
Who can tell me the name of the painting that was the result of this pose? Here's a hint: The cushion represents my dog. It was one of a series of four paintings. Send me an email with your guess.
Item of interest: The hand in the photo belongs to Mary Rockwell. Mary was Rockwell's first wife, and often helped him with the posing sessions - especially with occasionally uncooperative children.
I don't think that we were going over my contract. In fact, I never had a contract! Rockwell was very well prepared and always had his ideas down on paper. Here he went over the details of the upcoming modeling session. It was important that I understood the thought process behind the painting so that I could strike a realistic pose.
Rockwell knew in his mind what he wanted from the pose and was very animated in manipulating my limbs to achieve the exact desired pose.
This is the same photograph as above but it gives you a better look at his studio. The first studio that I posed in was on Main Street in Stockbridge, MA over the grocery store. Later he converted a run-down old barn behind his house into a beautiful studio which has since been moved to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge for all to see and enjoy.
People often ask me how it was possible to hold a pose like this for such a long time. Luckily for me he usually had a photographer shoot the pose and he created his paintings from the photographs. As you can see, this was not one of those times and I remember my arm getting very tired.
Look at the photos on the previous page and now look at the image at the top right hand corner of his painting. Look familiar?
Here's my understandably proud mother watching Rockwell work his magic. Not even she could have ever known that this local Stockbridge resident would become known as America's Most Beloved Artist. How lucky we were to have been a part of history!
Here we see Rockwell creating images that would be used by Hallmark Cards for a Christmas collection. Little did he know that one day these images would become famous collectors plates such as "Scotty Gets His Tree", "Angel With a Black Eye" and "Scotty Plays Santa."
This is one of the most treasured things in my life and I'm happy to share it with you. During a photo session for a newspaper spread, Rockwell was asked to write me a check for my modeling duties. He wrote a check for $8000 complete with a little cartoon head on the upper right hand corner.
The truth is that I never made $8000 as a model. That check was a joke. I was usually paid $5 or $10 for a particularly long session. Either way, that was a lot of money for a country kid in the 1950's. At that age I couldn't even comprehend $8000.
Now we're talking! A good old Wing Ding thick shake made fresh at the local drug store (remember when drug stores had ice cream counters?) This was my favorite part of the whole modeling experience. It was even better than the money which, by the way, was always deposited into my savings account. It helped get me through college.
Do you have a hero? I do. And he took the time to sit and talk with me about school and sports and life in general. In addition to his monumental talent, Norman Rockwell was a good man. He recognized and painted the best of Americans and especially children.
