The Family Tree

The Family Tree, as it was named, was simply recognized as depicting the genealogy of the young boy at the top of the painting at the first sight. It was created by Norman Rockwell in 1959 for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on October 24 the same year.

The Family Tree

But if you take a closer look, you will find it full of meaning. People drawn in it were not just for tell us it was a family tree of the boy, but to tell us that family archetypes in American at that time. What’s more, in the painting, Norman expressed his idea that we were inherently shaped both by our ancestors and our nation.

The background of this masterpiece was a tree growing up at a small seaside village where few farm house located. And there was something like a corsair firing while a sailing boat porting beside. That was where the first generation live in. We can infer that the man of first generation was a pirate by his special hat and the eye patch. We would find out that the families differ from different areas in the history of American, form civil war soldiers, to native Americans, to aristocrats, to farmer, to any other types. Furthermore, it showed us about eight generation not only in their position but their clothes style, hairstyle and life style. We can also know more about the generation by researching different facial expressions, some were smiling while some sneering.

In conclusion, that was absolutely Norman Rockwell illustrating style, one who was awarded a prominent depict of National figures in 1977 and Presidential Medal of Freedom which was the highest honor for American civics.

 

 

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