The Four Freedoms

By Norman Rockwell

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

This town meeting scene is an early version of Freedom of Speech, one of Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” paintings that were inspired by President Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union Address. Roosevelt articulated freedoms that he believed were essential for everyone in the world:

• freedom of speech,
• freedom from want,
• freedom to worship,
• and freedom from fear.

Rockwell said, “I wanted to do something bigger than a war poster, make some statement about why the country was fighting the war.” He had read the Four Freedoms proclamation, he said, but the language was “so noble…that it stuck in my throat.” So he carried on with life as usual.

One night, unable to sleep, he had a flash of inspiration. A neighbor, Jim Edgerton, had expressed views in the town meeting that everyone else disagreed with.

“But they had let him have his say. No one had shouted him down. My gosh, I thought, that’s it. There it is. Freedom of Speech. I’ll illustrate the Four Freedoms using my Vermont neighbors as models. I’ll express the ideas in simple, everyday scenes. Freedom of Speech—a New England town meeting. Freedom from Want—a Thanksgiving dinner. Take them out of the noble language of the proclamation and put them in terms everybody can understand.”

Questions: