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.

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

The painting was also originally reproduced on a poster promoting the sale of war bonds during World War Two.

Freedom of Speech has also been reproduced in several Rockwell Books: page 119 of The Norman Rockwell Album, illustration 204 of Norman Rockwell's America by Christopher Finch, illustrations 384 and 283 of Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator by Thomas Buechner, page 143 of Norman Rockwell: Illustrator by Arthur L. Guptill, page 33 of Norman Rockwell, Storyteller With A Brush, page 82 of The Best 0f Norman Rockwell and page 769 and Plate 62 of Norman Rockwell, A Definitive Catalogue by Laurie Norton Moffatt.

The illustration also appears in The Norman Rockwell Poster Book and 50 Norman Rockwell Favorites.

The painting also appears on page 45 of A Treasury of the Saturday Evening Post. A Treasury of the Saturday Evening Post also reproduces the original Post article by Booth Tarkington that was published with the illustration.

The original oil on canvas painting, 45.75 x 35.5 inches or 116 x 90 cm, is housed in the Norman Rockwell Museum of Stockbridge, Mass. A preliminary a study of this painting is located in the collection of the Metropolitan Meseum of Art in New York City.

Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms Paintings

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.

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.

The captions on the original war poster read as follows: "Save Freedom of Speech" above and "Buy War Bonds" underneath the illustration.

Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech (1943)
Copyright © 1943 Saturday Evening Post & Curtis Publishing Company