TAM Docents: Rockwell window washer we met on Wednesday

Hello Docents-

For those of you here for training on Wednesday that had the opportunity to meet one of Rockwell's models (and for those who didn't, he says he's coming back so you might get another shot), Randi has been so kind as to share this info with me so I wanted to share it with you as well. I have also attached the updated copy of our Rockwell facts. Thanks to those of you who have contributed. Feel free to send more as you learn more that you think would be fun to add.

Thank you for all that you do for Tacoma Art Museum!

-Jana

 

Jana Wennstrom | TACOMA ART MUSEUM

Manager of Public and Volunteer Programs

T: 253.272.4258 x3030

 

 

American Chronicles: The Art of

NORMAN ROCKWELL

February 26 – May 30, 2011

 

courage – family – innocence – freedom – history

 

 

 

I was online looking up the picture and I found an excerpt from an article about a reunion of Rockwell models last year held in Arlington. The link will let you read the whole article, but below is what was written about the man we met with Margaret on Wednesday. This is going to be such a memorable exhibit. Thought you'd enjoy this.

 

http://eyelevel.si.edu/2010/12/just-plain-folk-on-norman-rockwells-models.html

 

Sculptor Jim Stafford wasn't born in Arlington, Vermont. The man who posed for Rockwell's Window Washer, was twenty years old when he met the artist whom he credits with encouraging his own artistic pursuits. It was 1960, and Stafford was stationed at Ft. Devens army base in Massachusetts, near the Rockwell home in Stockbridge. Five years earlier, while still in high school, Stafford took a correspondence class with Rockwell. He wrote a letter to Rockwell and soon he and a friend were invited by Rockwell to his home. As Stafford tells it, "when we arrived at the door, Rockwell, laughing, looked me up and down, and said, 'you'll do.'" When Stafford asked 'do what?' Rockwell replied, "Oh, I'm working on this painting and I need a window washer. He and his friend spent the next three days with Rockwell, while Stafford posed for the painting of a window washer in a Manhattan skyscraper who flirts with a secretary on the other side of the glass, now in the collection of Steven Spielberg. For the three days, Stafford was given a check for thirty dollars. "The funny thing about that was when I tried to cash it to buy beer for my army buddies, no one believed it was real. And now I wish I wouldn't have cashed it," Stafford said. Stafford was unable to make it to the East Coast for either the exhibition or the model reunion, though a new reunion is planned for 2011 in Vermont. "Oh yeah," Stafford added, "There's still a few of us models around."

Randi