 Freedom from Want is the third in a series of four oil paintings entitled Four Freedoms by Norman Rockwell . They were inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt 's State of the Union Address , known as Four Freedoms , delivered to the 77th United States Congress on January 6 , 1941 . In the early 1940s , Roosevelt 's Four Freedoms themes were still vague and abstract to many , but the government used them to help boost patriotism . The Four Freedoms ' theme was eventually incorporated into the Atlantic Charter , and it became part of the charter of the United Nations . The series of paintings ran in The Saturday Evening Post accompanied by essays from noted writers on four consecutive weeks : Freedom of Speech ( February 20 ) , Freedom of Worship ( February 27 ) , Freedom from Want ( March 6 ) , and Freedom from Fear ( March 13 ) . Eventually , the series was widely distributed in poster form and became instrumental in the U.S. Government War Bond Drive . 
