Freedom of Speech by Norman Rockwell

February 20, 1943 Issue of The Saturday Evening Post:
The Four Freedoms Series

Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech appeared on the pages of The Saturday Evening Post on February 20, 1943...
(continued)

This painting was the first installment of Rockwell's famous Four Freedoms series.

The Four Freedoms paintings were inspired by a speech given before the United States Congress on January 6, 1941 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In that famous and stirring speech, Roosevelt enumerated four basic freedoms to which every person was entitled.

The first was freedom of speech. Second was freedom to worship. Third was freedom from want. Fourth was freedom from fear.

The images and articles were presented in The Saturday Evening Post in the same order as President Roosevelt presented them in his speech.

Norman Rockwell's
Freedom of Speech

For inspiration for Freedom of Speech, Rockwell recalled a recent town meeting in Arlington, Vermont where he lived at that time. He remembered how his neighbor, Arlington resident Jim Edgerton, had stood up during the meeting and aired an unpopular opinion. Instead of objecting to his remarks, his fellow citizens honored Edgerton's right to speak his piece.

Rockwell decided that their respect for Edgerton's unpopular viewpoint perfectly illustrated Roosevelt's idea of Freedom of Speech.

Rockwell painted the characters as strongly contrasting.

The central figure stands above the rest. He is dressed in working clothes that have a slightly rough quality. He has a determined look on his face. In his pocket is a rolled up program for the meeting.

All eyes are on the speaker.

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Seated around him are his neighbors. All are holding the same program. The men whose clothes we can see are all dressed in suits. We assume they are businessmen.

Mild disagreement crosses the face of the man on his right. He is smiling upside down. His program is clenched in his hand.

Yet no one interrupts the speaker.

Rockwell aptly captures the essential character of free speech with this painting.

This picture was also printed on Office of War Information poster OWI Poster Number 44 O-510257.

Art.com has several sizes of reproductions of the original World War II poster. Just click on the picture.

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