Art Review: ‘Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont’ Exhibition at Shelburne Museum

Last week I wrote a bit about Vermont’s Covered Bridge Week, celebrating our hundred or so quaint but practical mid-19th century covered bridges of which there are two in ye olde Arlington, where I live. I write about the arts in Vermont two or three times a year — please indulge my prerogative as the art critic — so on to Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont, an engaging and revelatory exhibition at Shelburne Museum. It’ll bring joy, and then there’s a big surprise.

Rockwell and his family lived in Arlington in southwestern Vermont from 1938 to 1953. On view front and center at the start of the show is a portrait of Rockwell from 1950 by fellow Arlington artist Gene Pelham. It shows him relaxed and contemplative, brushed in hand, wearing a denim shirt, and looking very much an Everyman and reedy and taut enough to be a Vermonter. He’d been steeping in Vermont camaraderie and quietude for a decade already, nationally renowned for his Four Freedoms scenes and with hundreds of Post covers to his credit.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Norman Rockwell

Last week I wrote a bit about Vermont’s Covered Bridge Week, celebrating our hundred or so quaint but practical mid-19th century covered bridges of which there are two in ye olde Arlington, where I live. I write about the arts in Vermont two or three times a year — please indulge my prerogative as the art critic — so on to Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont, an engaging and revelatory exhibition at Shelburne Museum. It’ll bring joy, and then there’s a big surprise.

Rockwell and his family lived in Arlington in southwestern Vermont from 1938 to 1953. On view front and center at the start of the show is a portrait of Rockwell from 1950 by fellow Arlington artist Gene Pelham. It shows him relaxed and contemplative, brushed in hand, wearing a denim shirt, and looking very much an Everyman and reedy and taut enough to be a Vermonter. He’d been steeping in Vermont camaraderie and quietude for a decade already, nationally renowned for his Four Freedoms scenes and with hundreds of Post covers to his credit.