Norman Rockwell: NORMAN ROCKWELL: 1894-1978 - Norman Rockwell: An enormously popular illustrator, American artist Norman Rockwell specialized in warm and humorous scenes of everyday small-town life. The cover of The Saturday Evening Post was Norman Rockwell's showcase for over forty years, giving him an audience larger than that of any other artist in history. Over the years he depicted there a unique collection of Americana, a series of vignettes of remarkable warmth and humor. In addition, Norman Rockwell painted a great number of pictures for story illustrations, advertising campaigns, posters, collotypes, calendars, and books. As Rockwell's personal contribution during World War II, Rockwell painted the famous "Four Freedoms" posters, symbolizing for millions the war aims as described by President Franklin Roosevelt. One version of Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.