Willie Gillis

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The Willie Gillis debut: Willie Gillis Food Package (1941-10-04) The Willie Gillis debut: Willie Gillis Food Package (1941-10-04)
The Willie Gillis debut: Willie Gillis Food Package (1941-10-04)
The Willie Gillis finale: Willie Gillis in College (1946-10-05)
Willie Gillis Home on Leave (1941-11-29) Willie Gillis Home on Leave (1941-11-29) Willie Gillis Home on Leave (1941-11-29)
Willie Gillis Home on Leave (1941-11-29)
Willie Gillis at the U.S.O. (1942-02-07)
Willie Gillis on K.P. (1942-04-11)
Willie Gillis What To Do in a Blackout (1942-06-27) Willie Gillis What To Do in a Blackout (1942-06-27) Willie Gillis What To Do in a Blackout (1942-06-27)
Willie Gillis What To Do in a Blackout (1942-06-27)
Willie Gillis in Church (1942-07-25)
Double Trouble for Willie Gillis (1942-09-05)
Willie's Rope Trick (1943-06-26) Willie's Rope Trick (1943-06-26) Willie's Rope Trick (1943-06-26)
Willie's Rope Trick (1943-06-26)
Willie Gillis New Year's Eve (1944-01-01)
Willie Gillis Generations (1944-09-16)
Willie Gillis series
Norman Rockwell
The Saturday Evening Post
This article is about Norman Rockwell's fictional character. For the television character, see The Rookies.

Willie Gillis is a fictional character created by Norman Rockwell for a series of World War II paintings that appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post (henceforth Post). Gillis, who was a fictional private,[1] appeared on a total of eleven Post covers.[2] Gillis was a fictional everyman whose career was tracked on the cover of the Post from induction through discharge without being depicted on the battlefield.[3] The Willie Gillis series of Saturday Evening Post covers was a hallmark of Rockwell's wartime work.[2] Robert Otis "Bob" Buck, Rockwell's model, eventually enlisted for service in the United States Navy.[4] In Rockwell's prime and at the peak of its popularity, The Saturday Evening Post had a subscribership of 4 million, and many of these subscribers believed Gillis was a real person.[5] Rockwell's wartime art contributed to the success of the wartime bond sales efforts.[6]

Contents

[edit] Background

From 1916 through his Kennedy Memorial cover on December 16, 1963,[4] Rockwell created 321 magazine covers for The Saturday Evening Post,[3] which was the most popular American magazine of the first half of the 20th century.[7] Rockwell illustrated American life during World War I and World War II in 34 of his cover illustrations,[2] and he illustrated 33 Post covers during World War II.[3] During much of the first half of the 1940s, Rockwell's cover illustrations focused on the human side of the war.[4] Rockwell encouraged support of the war efforts during World War II via his covers which endorsed war bonds, encouraged women to work, and encouraged men to enlist in the service. His World War II illustrations used themes of patriotism, longing, shifting gender roles, reunion, love, work, community and family during wartime to promote the war.[2] In his role as a magazine illustrator during times of war, Rockwell draws comparisons to Winslow Homer, an American Civil War illustrator for Harper's Weekly.[8] Rockwell's artistic expressions were said to have led to the adoption of the goal of the Four Freedoms in keeping with United States President Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union Address.[9][10] His painting series, the Four Freedoms, toured in a war bond effort that raised $132 million.[6]

Rockwell created Willis Gillis in 1940 as the European Theatre of World War II was escalating and Americans were enlisting or being drafted under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 in the armed forces. Rockwell credits the name Willie Gillis to his wife,[11] who derived it from an old children's book, Wee Willie Winkie.[2] Rockwell described Gillis as "an inoffensive, ordinary little guy thrown into the chaos of war."[5] The public identified with Rockwell's portrayal of the "little guy" living up to a sense of duty in this time of war.[5] Gillis was truly seen as the typic G.I.,[12] and Rockwell's wartime art remains quite popular. Rockwell's signed original May 29, 1943 depiction of Rosie the Riveter sold at a Sotheby's auction on May 22, 2002 for $4,959,500.[13] Some of the Willie Gillis paintings and the Rosie the Riveter painting were raffled off during the United States Department of the Treasury's Second War Loan Drive.[13]

[edit] Post Illustrations

Willie Gillis in Convoy (1943) was a depiction of Gillis close to the battlefield that was not used as cover art.
Willie Gillis in Convoy (1943) was a depiction of Gillis close to the battlefield that was not used as cover art.

Rockwell met his model Buck at a square dance in Arlington, Vermont. Rockwell had been seeking a model, and he kept observing Buck from different angles during the dance. Buck noticed Rockwell's stares and informed Rockwell that if he did not stop staring, Buck would knock him flat.[11]

Buck had been exempted from the military draft, but he felt serving his country was his patriotic duty and enlisted as a Naval aviator in 1943.[14] Buck served in the South Seas during the war.[11] Once Buck enlisted, Rockwell worked from memory and photographs to complete his illustrations,[15] and sometimes he only worked Gillis into the background via a photograph on the wall.[4] Rockwell was going to discontinue the series, but Post editors objected because his character was too popular.[15] Gillis was so popular that at one point, the Post was receiving hundreds of letter inquiring about the tribulations of the character who was perceived by many as real, and concern for the private was particularly high among families named Gillis.[5] Although Buck had departed, the model who portrayed Gillis' fictional girlfriend (fellow Post illustrator Mead Schaeffer's daughter) remained available, so Rockwell painted her faithfully sleeping at midnight on New Year's Eve with photos of Willie Gillis in the background above her bed in Willie Gillis: New Year's Eve.[15] the subsequent 11 inches (280 mm) × 14 inches (360 mm) Willie Gillis cover, Willie Gillis: Generations, depicting the Gillis military family in pictures above a bookshelf of Gillis war books, generated hundreds of letters from Gillises, many of whom wanted to buy the imaginary books.[11]

In Willie Gillis: Food Package Gillis' 1941 debut, he toted a care package.[1] Ten subsequent covers depicted Gillis in a variety of roles: at church in uniform, holding his cover on his lap; soldier on K.P. duty; the son carrying on the family tradition of military service; a still life of Gillis' family photographs; and two fighting mad girls, holding pictures of Gillis that he'd sent each of them from the war zone.[1][2] Rockwell created a good ending for the series by depicting Gillis relaxing while studying at college on the G.I. Bill:[1][2] "We know that things ended well for Gillis, though; his final cover in 1946 showed the young man stretched in a windowsill smoking a pipe and wearing penny loafers, studying at college.[1]

To some, the fourth piece – Willie Gillis: Hometown News – was the one that cemented Willie Gillis' place in American history, because families identified with Gillis.[9] The sixth piece, Willie Gillis in Church, is the earliest of his works with significant religious themes.[16] This final component of the series, Willie Gillis in College, engenders much critical review because it is perceived to represent a transformation of character.[17] It is a study in contrast of mood and style from the wartime components of the series.[8] Rockwell did produce depictions of Gillis that were not on the cover. The painting Willie Gillis in a Convoy was produced in 1943, depicting Gillis in the back of a covered military vehicle with his rifle in hand.

[edit] Willie Gillis Series

The following are the eleven Willie Gillis Saturday Evening Post cover paintings:[4]

  1. October 4, 1941 - Willie Gillis: Food Package/Willie Gillis: Package From Home
  2. November 29, 1941 - Willie Gillis: Home Sweet Home/Willie Gillis: Home On Leave
  3. February 7, 1942 - Willie Gillis: USO
  4. April 11, 1942 - Willie Gillis: Hometown News/Willie Gillis: On K.P.
  5. June 27, 1942 - Willie Gillis: What To Do in a Blackout
  6. July 25, 1942 - Willie Gillis in Church
  7. September 5, 1942 - Willie Gillis: Girls with Letters/Double Trouble for Willie Gillis
  8. June 26, 1943 - Willie Gillis: Cat's Cradle/Willie's Rope Trick
  9. January 1, 1944 - Willie Gillis: New Year's Eve
  10. September 16, 1944- Willie Gillis: Gillis Heritage/Willie Gillis Generations
  11. October 5, 1946 - Willie Gillis in College

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e ‘Willie Gillis’ makes a return visit to the USO. jdnews.com. Freedom Communications, Inc. (2006-04-11). Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia. "NORMAN ROCKWELL'S WARTIME COVERS" (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  3. ^ a b c Cover Story -- Norman Rockwell's America. Traditional Fine Art Online, Inc. (2003-07-04). Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  4. ^ a b c d e Norman Rockwell Magazine Covers Complete List - Part Six: 1940 to 1980. Best Norman Rockwell Art.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  5. ^ a b c d Larson, Christina (October 2001). Reconstructing Rockwell: How an American icon became an artist. The Washington Monthly. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  6. ^ a b The James A. Michener Art Museum (2007-08-08). "Michener Art Museum Pairs Famed American Illustrators Rockwell and Hargens for Fall Exhibitions in New Hope" (in English). Press release. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  7. ^ Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People. Traditional Fine Art Online, Inc/High Art Museum. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  8. ^ a b Boucher, Justin M.. American Genre Painting in the Nineteenth Century: Teaching Artistic Interpretation as a Tool for Critically Viewing History. the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  9. ^ a b Cutler, Judy A. G.. Norman Rockwell: A Star on Our Flag. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  10. ^ Saturday Evening Post. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  11. ^ a b c d Guptill, Arthur L. (1946). Norman Rockwell Illustrator. Watson-Guptill Publications, 182-3. ISBN 0070252130. 
  12. ^ Marling, Karal Ann (2001-10-14). ART/ARCHITECTURE; Salve for a Wounded People. The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  13. ^ a b cite web|url=http://www.rosietheriveter.org/painting.htm|title=Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter Painting Auctioned|accessdate=2008-04-05}}
  14. ^ Meyer, Susan E. (1991). Norman Rockwell's World War II: Impressions From the Homefront. United Services. ISBN 0963101102.  cited at 2007 December Illustration Art Signature Auction #677. Heritage Auctions, Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  15. ^ a b c Rockwell, Norman (1960 (rev. 1995)). My Adventures as an Illustrator: Norman Rockwell. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810925966.  cited at 2007 December Illustration Art Signature Auction #677. Heritage Auctions, Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  16. ^ Coppenger, Mark (2000). Norman Rockwell and the Church of Your Choice. Mark Coppenger. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  17. ^ Clark, Daniel A.. ""The Two Joes Meet. Joe College, Joe Veteran": The G. I. Bill, College Education, and Postwar American Culture". History of Education Quarterly 38 (2 (Summer, 1998)): 165–189. doi:10.2307/369985.