Willie Gillis

Infobox Awards
title =
halign = center
award1 = double image|center|Willie Gillis Food Package.jpg|150|Willie Gillis in College.jpg|156|The Willie Gillis debut: "Willie Gillis Food Package" (1941-10-04)|The Willie Gillis finale: "Willie Gillis in College" (1946-10-05)
award2 = triple image|center|Willie Gillis Home on Leave.jpg|102|Willie Gillis at the U.S.O..jpg|105|Willie Gillis on K.P..jpg‎|100|"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)
award3 = triple image|center|Willie Gillis in a Blackout.jpg|107|Willie Gillis in Church.jpg|100|Double Trouble for Willie Gillis.jpg‎|103|"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)
award4 =triple image|center|Willie's Rope Trick.jpg|100|Willie Gillis New Year's Eve.jpg|100|Willie Gillis Generations.jpg‎|105|"Willie's Rope Trick" (1943-06-26)|"Willie Gillis New Year's Eve" (1944-01-01)|"Willie Gillis Generations" (1944-09-16)
award5 = Willie Gillis series
Norman Rockwell
The Saturday Evening Post 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,cite web|url=http://www.jdnews.com/articles/gillis_7990___article.html/cover_dick.html|title=‘Willie Gillis’ makes a return visit to the USO|accessdate=2008-04-04|publisher=Freedom Communications, Inc.|date=2006-04-11|work=jdnews.com] appeared on a total of eleven "Post" covers.cite press release|url=http://www.philadelphiahistory.org/akm/press/photo/?action=viewPressRelease&id=e37709b0b7b228315ffd0c71ec17c9c3|title=NORMAN ROCKWELL'S WARTIME COVERS|accessdate=2008-04-04|language=English|publisher=Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia] 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. The Willie Gillis series of "Saturday Evening Post" covers was a hallmark of Rockwell's wartime work. Robert Otis "Bob" Buck, Rockwell's model, eventually enlisted for service in the United States Navy.cite web|url=http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/norman-rockwell-magazine-cover-list-1940-1980.html|title=Norman Rockwell Magazine Covers Complete List - Part Six: 1940 to 1980|accessdate=2008-04-04|publisher=Best Norman Rockwell Art.com] 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. Rockwell's wartime art contributed to the success of the wartime bond sales efforts.

Background

From 1916 through his Kennedy Memorial cover on December 16, 1963, Rockwell created 321 magazine covers for "The Saturday Evening Post",cite web|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/newsm1/n1m369.htm|title=Cover Story -- Norman Rockwell's America|accessdate=2008-04-04|date=2003-07-04|publisher=Traditional Fine Art Online, Inc.] which was the most popular American magazine of the first half of the 20th century. [cite web|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa103.htm|title=Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People|accessdate=2008-04-07|publisher=Traditional Fine Art Online, Inc/High Art Museum] 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 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. 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".cite web|url=http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2004/3/04.03.01.x.html|title=American Genre Painting in the Nineteenth Century: Teaching Artistic Interpretation as a Tool for Critically Viewing History|accessdate=2008-04-05|publisher=the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute|author=Boucher, Justin M.] 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. [cite web|url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsaturday.htm|title=Saturday Evening Post|accessdate=2008-04-05] His painting series, the "Four Freedoms", toured in a war bond effort that raised $132 million.cite press release|language=English|url=http://www.michenermuseum.org/press/?item=2007-08-08|title=Michener Art Museum Pairs Famed American Illustrators Rockwell and Hargens for Fall Exhibitions in New Hope|publisher=The James A. Michener Art Museum|accessdate=2008-04-05|date=2007-08-08]

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,cite book|title=Norman Rockwell Illustrator|isbn=0070252130|publisher=Watson-Guptill Publications|pages=182-3|date=1946|author=Guptill, Arthur L.] who derived it from an old children's book, "Wee Willie Winkie". Rockwell described Gillis as "an inoffensive, ordinary little guy thrown into the chaos of war." The public identified with Rockwell's portrayal of the "little guy" living up to a sense of duty in this time of war.cite web|url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0110.larson.html|title=Reconstructing Rockwell: How an American icon became an artist|accessdate=2008-04-05|year=2001|month=October|author=Larson, Christina|publisher= The Washington Monthly] Gillis was truly seen as the typic G.I., [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E5D91E3CF937A25753C1A9679C8B63|title= ART/ARCHITECTURE; Salve for a Wounded People|accessdate=2008-04-07|publisher=The New York Times Company|work=The New York Times|date=2001-10-14|author=Marling, Karal Ann] 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.cite web|url=http://www.rosietheriveter.org/painting.htm|title=Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter Painting Auctioned|accessdate=2008-04-05] 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.

Post Illustrations

Rockwell met his model Buck at a square dance in city-state|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.

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. [cite book|title=Norman Rockwell's World War II: Impressions From the Homefront|publisher=United Services|author=Meyer, Susan E.|year=1991|isbn=0963101102 cited at cite web|url=http://fineart.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=677&Lot_No=58377|title=2007 December Illustration Art Signature Auction #677|accessdate=2008-04-04|publisher=Heritage Auctions, Inc.] Buck served in the South Seas during the war. Once Buck enlisted, Rockwell worked from memory and photographs to complete his illustrations, and sometimes he only worked Gillis into the background via a photograph on the wall. Rockwell was going to discontinue the series, but "Post" editors objected because his character was too popular.cite book|title=My Adventures as an Illustrator: Norman Rockwell|publisher=Harry N. Abrams|author=Rockwell, Norman|year=1960 (rev. 1995)|isbn=0810925966 cited at cite web|url=http://fineart.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=677&Lot_No=58377|title=2007 December Illustration Art Signature Auction #677|accessdate=2008-04-04|publisher=Heritage Auctions, Inc.] 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. 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". the subsequent convert|11|in|mm × convert|14|in|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.

In "Willie Gillis: Food Package" Gillis' 1941 debut, he toted a care package. 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. Rockwell created a good ending for the series by depicting Gillis relaxing while studying at college on the G.I. Bill: "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.

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.cite web|url=http://www.quinnpublishing.net/untitled_folder/rockwell.html|title=Norman Rockwell: A Star on Our Flag|accessdate=2008-04-05|author=Cutler, Judy A. G.] The sixth piece, "Willie Gillis in Church", is the earliest of his works with significant religious themes. [cite web|url=http://www.listten.com/article.cfm?id=8|title=Norman Rockwell and the Church of Your Choice|accessdate=2008-04-05|publisher=Mark Coppenger|author=Coppenger, Mark|date=2000] This final component of the series, "Willie Gillis in College", engenders much critical review because it is perceived to represent a transformation of character. [cite journal |last= Clark |first= Daniel A. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |month= |title="The Two Joes Meet. Joe College, Joe Veteran": The G. I. Bill, College Education, and Postwar American Culture |journal=History of Education Quarterly |volume=38 |issue=2 (Summer, 1998) |pages=165–189 |id= |url=http://www.jstor.org/pss/369985 |accessdate= 2008-04-05 |quote=|doi=10.2307/369985 ] It is a study in contrast of mood and style from the wartime components of the series. 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.

Willie Gillis Series

The following are the eleven Willie Gillis "Saturday Evening Post" cover paintings:
#October 4, 1941 - "Willie Gillis: Food Package/Willie Gillis: Package From Home"
#November 29, 1941 - "Willie Gillis: Home Sweet Home/Willie Gillis: Home On Leave"
#February 7, 1942 - "Willie Gillis: USO"
#April 11, 1942 - "Willie Gillis: Hometown News/Willie Gillis: On K.P."
#June 27, 1942 - "Willie Gillis: What To Do in a Blackout"
#July 25, 1942 - "Willie Gillis in Church"
#September 5, 1942 - "Willie Gillis: Girls with Letters/Double Trouble for Willie Gillis"
#June 26, 1943 - "Willie Gillis: Cat's Cradle/Willie's Rope Trick"
#January 1, 1944 - "Willie Gillis: New Year's Eve"
#September 16, 1944- "Willie Gillis: Gillis Heritage/Willie Gillis Generations"
#October 5, 1946 - "Willie Gillis in College"

ee also

*Norman Rockwell Museum

Notes