Norman Rockwell’s Illustration of Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms”
How contemporary artists made the Four Freedoms more inclusive
On 6th January 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, laid out the “four freedoms” that were indispensable for the victory of global democracy against Nazi dictatorship.
“I address you, the members of the 77th Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union. I use the word ‘unprecedented’ because at no previous time has American security been as seriously threatened from without as it is today.”
The President proposed four fundamental freedoms that people everywhere in the world ought to enjoy:
1. Freedom of speech
2. Freedom of worship
3. Freedom from want
4. Freedom from fear
11 months after this speech, the US was attacked by Japan that caused the United States to enter World War II.
In 1943, Norman Rockwell, an American painter, and illustrator took Roosevelt’s manifesto for global democracy and translated it into four paintings Four Freedoms to boost patriotism in the American people. Initially, Four Freedoms were attached to Roosevelt’s speech and the involvement of the US in WWII…
