“Without thinking too much about it in specific terms,” Norman Rockwell said of his art, “I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.” In the quartet known as the “Four Freedoms,” Rockwell created images that captured the definitive American ideals outlined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941—freedom of speech, of worship, from fear, and from want. Unveiled in 1943, the paintings raised $130 million for the war effort. They’ve been touring America, are now in Houston, and couldn’t be more relevant in the election year to come. —E.C.

Norman Rockwell: American Freedom was featured in the January 4, 2020 issue of Air Mail. Read on