Four Freedoms ( Norman Rockwell ) The Four Freedoms or Four Essential Human Freedoms is a series of four oil paintings produced in 1943 by the American art ist Norman Rockwell . The paintings are approximately equal in dimension with measurements of × . The series , now in the Norman Rockwell Museum , was made for reproduction in " The Saturday Evening Post " over the course of four consecutive weeks in 1943 alongside essays by prominent thinkers of the day . Later they were the highlight of a touring exhibition sponsored by the " Saturday Evening Post " and the United States Department of the Treasury . The touring exhibition and accompanying sales drives raised over US $ 132 million in the sale of war bond s . The Four Freedoms theme was derived from the 1941 State of the Union Address by United States President Franklin Roosevelt delivered to the 77th United States Congress on January 6 , 1941 . During the speech he identified four essential human rights ( Freedom of Speech , Freedom of Worship , Freedom From Want and Freedom From Fear ) that should be universally protected . The theme was incorporated into the Atlantic Charter , and it became part of the charter of the United Nations . Roosevelt ' s message was as follows : " In the future days which we seek to make secure , we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms . " This series is a cornerstone of a retrospective of the career of Rockwell , who was the most widely known contemporary commercial artist of the mid 20th century , but who failed to achieve critical acclaim commensurate with his popularity . These are perhaps Rockwell ' s most well - known works of art , and they were the most widely distributed paintings ever produced by some accounts . At one time they were commonly displayed in post offices , schools , clubs , railroad stations , and a variety of public and semi - public buildings . Critical review of these images , like most of Rockwell ' s work , has not been entirely positive . Rockwell ' s idyllic and nostalgic approach to regionalism made him a popular illustrator but a lightly regarded fine artist during his lifetime . These paintings generally are viewed with this sentiment . However , he has created a niche in the enduring social fabric with the " Freedom from Want " image which is emblematic of what is now known as the " Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving " . Rockwell and World War II . From 1916 through his Kennedy Memorial cover on December 16 , 1963 , Rockwell created 321 magazine covers for " The Saturday Evening Post " , which was the most popular American magazine of the first half of the 20th century . In a preelectronic era where mass production magazine color illustration was the most popular form of media , Rockwell became a national name , who by the 1950s was rivaled only by Walt Disney for his familiarity to the public among visual artist s . Rockwell illustrated American life during World War I and World War II in 34 of his cover illustrations , and he illustrated 33 " Post " covers during World War II . During much of the first half of the 1940s , Rockwell ' s cover illustrations focused on the human side of the war . Rockwell encouraged support for the war efforts during World War II via his covers which endorsed war bond s , 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 . 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 " . These four Rockwell artistic expressions were said to have led to the adoption of Roosevelt ' s Four Freedoms as a goal . Rockwell made numerous artistic contributions to the war efforts in addition to the " Four Freedoms " . He is widely known for his idealized fictional wartime characters Willie Gillis and his depiction of Rosie the Riveter and some of his other war art is known by name such as " War News " and " Homecoming Soldier " . He was responsible for encouraging individual monetary support of the war through emotional posters like " Hasten the Homecoming " , 1943 . Roosevelt ' s speech . Throughout his political career Roosevelt championed the cause of human rights . In his Annual Message to Congress of January 6 , 1941 , which was delivered at a time when Nazi powers ruled over Western Europe , he asked the American citizens to support war efforts in various ways . He stated his vision of a better future , founded upon four freedoms : the " four essential human freedoms , " some traditional and some new ones : freedom of speech , freedom of worship , freedom from want , and freedom from fear . Roosevelt ' s State of the Union Address delivered on January 6 , 1941 , became known as his " Four Freedoms Speech " , due to its conclusion that described President ' s vision of worldwide extension of the American ideals of individual liberties summarized by these four freedoms . The speech served to awaken Congress and the nation to the dire war calling , articulate ideological aims of the necessary armed conflict and appeal to the universal American belief of freedom . The following passage is from Roosevelt ' s speech : Production . In 1941 the United States Government had three agencies responsible for war propaganda : The Office of Facts and Figures ( OFF ) , The Division of Information of the Office of Emergency Management ( OEM ) , and Office of Government Reports ( OGR ) . The OFF was responsible for commissioned artwork and for assembling a corps of writers , led by Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish . By mid - 1942 , the Office of War Information determined that despite the efforts of OFF in distributing pamphlets , posters , displays and other media , only a third of the general public was familiar with Roosevelt ' s four freedoms and at most one in fifty could enumerate them . The four freedoms had been a " campaign to educate Americans about participation in World War II " . Rockwell remembered a scene of a local town meeting in which one person spoke out in lone dissent , but was accorded the floor as a matter of protocol . A vision struck him to depict this scene to represent " Freedom of Speech " , and then in 1942 Rockwell decided to use his Vermont neighbors as models for an inspirational set of posters depicting the themes laid out by Roosevelt the previous year in a Four Freedoms series . He spent three days making charcoal sketches of the series , and the series took seven months to create . Models included a Mrs . Harrington who became the devout old woman in " Freedom of Worship " and a man named Jim Martin who appears in each painting in the series . The intention was to remind America what they were fighting for : freedom of speech and worship , freedom from want and fear . All of the paintings used a muted palette and are devoid of the use of vermilion that Rockwell is known for . Rockwell ' s patriotic gesture was to travel to Washington , D . C . and volunteer his free services to the government for this cause . As Rockwell bounced from one government office to the next he received no indication of interest by the government . In fact , the Office of War Information told him that poster art like that used in World War I was not welcome because the government intended to use real artists instead this time . Rockwell returned to the " Saturday Evening Post " and got an enthusiastic response from editor Ben Hibbs to publish his designs . Some sources published after Rockwell ' s death question whether the government was truly as discouraging as Rockwell claimed . They cite an encouraging April 23 , 1943 correspondence with Thomas D . Mabry of the Office of War Information ( a former Executive Director of the Museum of Modern Art ) . At the time , the three government propaganda agencies were disjointed , and they were not unified under the Office of War Information ( OWI ) until June 13 , 1945 by a Presidential Executive Order . Furthermore , the writers division , led by MacLeish , was under pressure for failing to deliver a message intelligible to people of varying intelligence . There was also significant turmoil in the OWI because a faction had supported work by Ben Shahn , but Shahn ' s work would not be used extensively for propaganda because it lacked general appeal . Upon publication " The Saturday Evening Post " received millions of reprint requests . Rockwell ' s version of the story is that only after the public demanded reprints did the Office of War Information get involved by producing 2 . 5 million sets of Four Freedoms posters , By the end of the war , 4 million posters had been printed . Both the " Freedom from Fear " and " Freedom from Want " posters had the leading caption " ours . . . to fight for " and the " Freedom of Speech " and " Freedom of Worship " had the leading caption " Buy War Bonds " and the word " Save " before the respective freedom . There is also a 1946 lithograph version of the 1943 paintings with all four paintings under the heading " ours . . . to fight for " . Between 1941 and 1946 , the United States Department of the Treasury conducted eight War Loan Drives to promote the sale of war Bonds to finance America ' s World War II efforts . The government used several forms of solicitation , advertising and marketing , such as aircraft carrier exhibits as well as direct appeal from all the five - star general s and admirals ( George Marshall , Dwight Eisenhower , Douglas MacArthur , Jackson D . Arnold , Ernest King , Chester W . Nimitz and William D . Leahy ) in the Seventh War Loan Drive , or a commemorative bond image of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Eighth War Loan Drive . The marketing attempts were quite varied even within a single War Loan Drive . In 1943 , the " Saturday Evening Post " donated the " Four Freedoms " to the Second War Loan Drive . Rockwell ' s " Four Freedoms Freedom of Speech , Freedom of Worship , Freedom from Want " and " Freedom from Fear " were first published on February 20 , February 27 , March 6 and March 13 , 1943 along with commissioned essays from leading American writers and historians ( Booth Tarkington , Will Durant , Carlos Bulosan , and Stephen Vincent Benét , respectively ) . They measured × except " Freedom of Worship " which measures × . After publication of the Rockwell works and subsequent demand for reprints , a tour was planned highlighting the popular paintings as a marketing device for the sale of War Bonds . During the subsequent 16 - city tour , which included various celebrities , public officials , and entertainers , approximately 1 . 2 million people throughout the United States viewed the paintings , which helped to raise $ 132 billion ( $ 18 . 533 billion for the Second Loan Drive alone ) for the war effort though the sale of war bonds . According to " The New Yorker " in 1945 , the " Four Freedoms " " were received by the public with more enthusiasm , perhaps , than any other paintings in the history of American art " . Rockwell is widely credited with contributing to the success of the war effort . The Four Freedoms were reproduced in posters by the United States Government Printing Office and on postage stamps by the United States Postal Service . The stamps are not to be confused with the February 12 , 1943 one - cent Four Freedoms Postage Stamp Issue by another artist . The Rockwell versions were issued in a set of four fifty - cent stamps in 1994 , the 100th anniversary of Rockwell ' s birth . " Freedom from Want " was included as the cover image of the 1946 book " Norman Rockwell , Illustrator " that was written when Rockwell was " at the height of his fame as America ' s most popular illustrator " . By 1972 , this 1946 publication was in its seventh printing . Although the paintings were originally intimately connected to Roosevelt and the American cause in World War II , the paintings have now developed an independent iconic identity in textbooks and on ties as well as in the cultural and social fabric . Eventually , 25 million people bought Rockwell ' s " Four Freedoms " prints by the end of the 20th century . Critical review . Rockwell is considered the " quintessential middlebrow American artist " . As an artist he is an illustrator rather than a fine arts painter . Although his style is painterly , his work is produced for the purpose of mass reproduction , and it is produced with the intent of delivering a common message to its viewers via a detailed narrative style . Furthermore , the vast majority of Rockwell ' s work was viewed in reproduced format and almost none of his contemporaneous audience ever saw his original work . Also , Rockwell ' s style of backwoods New England small - town realism , known as regionalism , was sometimes viewed as out of step with the oncoming wave of abstract modern art . Some say his realism is so direct that he abstains from using artistic license . John Canaday , a " New York Times " art critic once referred to Rockwell as the " Rembrandt of Punkin ' Crick " for his aversion to the vices of big city life . Dave Hickey derided Rockwell for painting without inflection . Some critics also view his sentimental and nostalgic vision out of step with the harsh realities of American life , such as The Great Depression . Some have summarized this combination by saying that Rockwell ' s " Four Freedoms " lack artistic maturity . Others point to the universality of the " Freedom of Religion " as disconcerting to practitioners of particular faiths . Others complained that he idealized American life because by depicting wholesome , healthy , and happy sentiments Rockwell depicted the good that was remembered or wished for , but by avoiding misery , poverty , and social unrest , he failed to demonstrate command of the bad and the ugly parts of American life . Rockwell ' s response to this criticism was , " I paint life as I would like it to be . " Although all four images were intended to promote patriotism in a time of war , " Freedom from Want " , which depicts an elderly couple serving a fat turkey to what looks like a table of happy and eager children and grandchildren has given the idyllic Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving work as important a place in the enduring marketplace of promoting family togetherness , peace and plenty as Hallmark at Christmas . The commercial success of the series is in part because each painting is considered to be a model of understandable art by the general public . The success of Rockwell ' s depictions was due to his use of long - standing American cultural values about unity and respect of certain institutions while using symbols that enabled a broad audience to identify with his images . This understandability made it one extreme on the scale of artistic complexity when comparing the series to contemporaneous art . It was diametrically opposed to abstract art and far removed from the intrigue of surrealism . In 1999 , the High Museum of Art and the Norman Rockwell Museum produced the first comprehensive exhibition of Rockwell ' s career that started at the High Museum on November 6 , 1999 , stopped at the Chicago Historical Society , Corcoran Gallery of Art , San Diego Museum of Art , Phoenix Art Museum , and Norman Rockwell Museum before concluding at the Solomon R . Guggenheim Museum on February 11 , 2002 . Although there has been a long history of Rockwell detractors , during this " Norman Rockwell : Pictures for the American People " touring exhibition attendance was record - setting and critical reviews were quite favorable . The nostalgia seemed to cause a bit of revisionism in the artworld , according to " The New York Times " which said , " What ' s odd is the show ' s enthusiastic reception by the art world , which in a lather of revisionism is falling all over itself to embrace what it once reviled : the comfy , folksy narrative visions of a self - deprecating illustrator . . . " Provenance . Norman Rockwell , who would live until 1978 , bequeathed his personal collection in trust to the Norman Rockwell Museum in 1973 for the " advancement of art appreciation and art education " . This collection included the " Four Freedoms " paintings . In 1993 , when the Rockwell Museum moved from its original location , the " Four Freedoms " were displayed in the new museum ' s central gallery . The " Four Freedoms " remain in the collection of the Museum . Exhibitions . The " Four Freedoms " were widely exhibited as part of the sixteen - city Second War Loan Drive in 1943 and have subsequently been part of other tours and exhibitions . They were a highlight of the first comprehensive Rockwell touring exhibition , entitled " Norman Rockwell : Pictures for the American People " , which was a seven - city tour that ran from November 1999 until February 2002 . They returned to the Corcoran Gallery of Art , which had been part of the Pictures for the American People tour , for an exhibition in association with the National World War II Memorial grand opening in 2004 . In addition to being included in various tours , the " Four Freedoms " were the subject of a 144 - page book in 1993 , the fiftieth anniversary of their production . The book is a very detailed account of the history of the " Four Freedoms " . It starts with Roosevelt ' s inspiration for the painting series and their publication . Then it describes the tour , which began at Hecht ' s Department Store in Washington , D . C . with Supreme Court Associate Justice William O . Douglas speaking . It includes various appendices , such as the four essays ( by Tarkington , Durant , Bulosan , and Benet ) that accompanied the original publication in " The Saturday Evening Post " and the essay that accompanied the government printing as well as original essays for the book . < div style = " clear : right ; " > < div >