Norman Rockwell and The Four Freedoms

The History Behind Norman Rockwell and the Four Freedoms


On January 6th, 1941, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt closed his State of the Union Address to Congress, he described his vision for a better way of life through what he considered the four essential human freedoms: Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want and Freedom of Speech.
In the future days which we seek to make secure, we lookforward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.The first is freedom of speech and expression-- everywhere in the world.The second is freedom of every person to worship God in hisown way -- everywhere in the world.The third is freedom from want, which, translated into worldterms, means economic understandings which will secure toevery nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-- everywhere in the world.The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated intoworld terms, means a world-wide reduction of armamentsto such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nationwill be in a position to commit an act of physical aggressionagainst any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definitebasis for a kind of world attainable in our own time andgeneration. That kind of world is the very antithesis ofthe so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictatorsseek to create with the crash of a bomb.- Franklin Delano Roosevelt,excerpted from the Annual Message to the Congress,January 6, 1941
Almost two years later, with the United States in the throes of World War II, Norman Rockwell painted a series of paintings called the Four Freedoms in an effort to reinforce their importance, while at the same time, simplifying their complexity. After four months, when he was finished, the United States government used them quite successfully to enhance family values, unity, and patriotism, at a time when it was most needed.