Robert Charles Howe, Illustrator In The Rockwell Mode, 48
DGH
Robert Charles Howe found fame in the mold of Norman Rockwell --
painting his self-portrait with the exact pose and type of pipe and
mirror that Rockwell used in his famous depiction of himself.
The image Mr. Howe painted in 1971 was not some postmodern Rockwell
takeoff. He painted out of reverence for a man whom he had made a
pilgrimage to Massachusetts to see. And soon thereafter, his
illustrations appeared on Rockwell's old turf, the cover of the Saturday
Evening Post.
Mr. Howe, died Wednesday, July 3, 2002, in Northwestern Memorial
Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, of a stroke, at the age of 48.
He was age 18 and living in Evergreen Park when he entered his
self-portrait "Holy Cow! Look, Mom, Making Like Norman Rockwell" in the
Post's first cover competition. The painting took first prize before a
committee that included Rockwell, said Howe's father, George W. It
appeared on the magazine's cover in March 1973, the start of a
three-year contract with Mr. Howe and the Post.
"My son was very taken with Norman," his father said. "He made a
charcoal drawing of Norman in a Boy Scout uniform, and he sent it to
Norman Rockwell. And he was waiting, waiting, waiting for a reply, and
on a Christmas Eve he got one: 'Bob, great job. Sincerely, Norman
Rockwell.' And he said, 'Anytime you want to come out, I'd be glad to
meet you.'"
In 1972, Mr. Howe and his parents packed a car for the long ride to
Stockbridge, Mass., where Rockwell spent his final years. His father
said that when they arrived, Rockwell's wife would not let them visit
the master illustrator. So they sent some of Mr. Howe's drawings with
Rockwell's doctor, and access was granted.
Mr. Howe's illustrations were similar to those of his idol in technique
and sense of humor.
In an interview published in the Chicago Sun-Times in 1978, Mr. Howe
said, "I wouldn't say that I actually copied Rockwell. But I was
influenced by his style and that of other illustrators. ... I'll never
forget the thrill of winning the Post contest that he judged. Thanks to
him and the Post, my career was launched."
Born in Chicago, Mr. Howe never moved out of the area. He opened a
gallery downtown and lived in a nearby condominium. He had a brief
marriage that ended in divorce.
A diabetic since childhood, he went blind in the mid-1970s, costing him
his magazine contract, his father said. Surgery regained him partial
sight in one eye, enough so he could paint a crystalline portrait of 62
physicians. But disease eventually led to the loss of a leg and other
surgery.
He spent his final years living in his parents' house in Oak Forest.
"You know artists, they have to be flamboyant," said his brother George
F. "But Bob was always Bob. He rejected the artsy role. He was a regular
kind of guy, who admired Norman Rockwell and pursued his art."
Michael Stutz
> .
>
> Robert Charles Howe found fame in the mold of Norman Rockwell --
> painting his self-portrait with the exact pose and type of pipe and
> mirror that Rockwell used in his famous depiction of himself.
> Mr. Howe, died Wednesday, July 3, 2002, in Northwestern Memorial
> Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, of a stroke, at the age of 48.
This is extremely disturbing to me, and I will explain why in a
moment.
I telephoned the circulation department of _The Saturday Evening Post_
about ten days ago to order a copy of a back issue, the March / April
1973 edition, for an article I was researching.
But when it arrived last week on the morning of 3 July I "discovered"
Howe, whose aforementioned painting was featured on the cover. I was
greatly impressed by this work and by the other samples contained in
that issue (including a portrait of Nixon and a character from
Dickens). Most astounding of all was that he was a young man of barely
18 when he had painted these early masterpieces -- surely a great
career stretched out before him.
I agree with Howe's sentiment that Rockwell was among the greatest of
American painters. And to see Howe's continuance in that mode was
hopeful, especially to me now living in an age when the culture of the
West is in such decay and our nation's great past is popularly
maligned ... so I'd begun to look him up last week, to see what had
happened in these thirty years, see how his career had blossomed. His
priorities were straight, he had such an early start, and even the
master Rockwell himself had supported his work. I was hoping that, by
this point, he would have established himself and that a rich body of
his work was out there.
The truth was a little different. I found surprisingly that he only
did a few more illustrations for the _Post_ and other outlets, and
then seemed to disappear. This morning I resolved to get to the bottom
of it and look him up.
After first searching on the Web and finding only 7 Google hits, I
turned to Usenet with the intention of first searching for his name to
see if it had come up anywhere, and then secondly to post an inquiry
in the most appropriate newsgroup. I was not expecting my accursed
favorite group to show up first in the list, and find that he had
passed away at around the same time I had "discovered" him.
This has become a common occurance in my life and is in fact what
first turned me to alt.obituaries, when in mid-January 2000 seeking
information on Johnny Newland with the intention of calling him up, an
article in this group had come up first -- he had died the day before.