[AnAmericanMother]

I despise people who despise Rockwell as an "illustrator".

The artsy crowd looked down on "mere illustrators" - that being a person who earned his living by selling his paintings commercially instead of hanging them in galleries and waiting for museums or foundations or rich people to buy them.

Rockwell's easel art is spectacular and shows that he had perfect command of his craft.

You've seen Rosie the Riveter before. Look here:

Another much-despised "illustrator" is N.C. Wyeth, who could paint rings around all his descendants and relations by marriage.

[LexBaird]

The artsy crowd looked down on "mere illustrators" - that being a person who earned his living by selling his paintings commercially instead of hanging them in galleries and waiting for museums or foundations or rich people to buy them.

Agree. Illustrators produce the defining images of our culture in a way the fine art community has abandoned. People may recognize the name of Mondrian, but they recognize and resonate to the works of Gibson, Flagg, Disney, Shultz, Rockwell, Held Jr., Maxwell, Max, Nast, Frazetta ...

[ReignOfError]

The artsy crowd looked down on "mere illustrators" - that being a person who earned his living by selling his paintings commercially instead of hanging them in galleries and waiting for museums or foundations or rich people to buy them.

Not to mention that the art world has fads and fashions like any other. Representational art was on the outs in the '40s and '50s -- all the cool kids were doing abstract expressionism. Rockwell's paintings tell a story, sometimes a very simple one, and often a warm and sentimantal one -- none of which were in favor at the time.

But as time has gone on, Rockwell, along with other storyteller-painters like Edward Hopper, and N.C. Wyeth, has come into greater favor among collectors and "serious" art scholars alike. Much like Dickens, dismissed in his own time as a writer of popular serials, is now taught as one of the greatest Victorian storytellers.

No matter how much time has gone by, Thomas Kincade will still be a hack.

[I still care]

I know it's been a while since anyone posted to this thread, but have to let you know there is another NC Wyeth lover here. He is one of my favorite artists.