Artists - Part 35

 J.C. Leyendecker

Before there was Norman Rockwell, there was J.C. Leyendecker (1874-1951), shown above in his studio drawing a baseball catcher.

When we think of Saturday Evening Post magazine covers, we think of Norman Rockwell, but Rockwell was influenced and inspired by Leyendecker, who made 322 Saturday Evening Post covers.  Many Leyendecker covers were humorous but affectionate portrayals of American life, like "The Dressmaker," above.  Later, Norman Rockwell carried on that tradition.

However, a difference between the two artists is that some of Leyendecker's works would be considered homoerotic today.  Above is a Leyendecker cover depicting U.S. Olympic rowers in 1932.

Leyendecker became the leading commercial artist of his day.  From 1905 to 1931 he created ads for the Arrow Shirt Company featuring the "Arrow collar man" who became an iconic representation of the fashionable male of the day.  What the public didn't know was that the Arrow collar man was Charles Beach, Leyendecker's lover, whom he lived with from 1914 to the end of his life.  Being gay was illegal at the time, so Leyendecker never came out.

UPDATE - I thought this Kupperheimer ad was illustrated by Leyendecker, but it's actually a modern tribute to Leyendecker.  The text is from the original 1921 ad.  Thanks to reader Brian for the correction.  

This 1919 Ivory Soap ad illustrated by Leyendecker depicts World War I soldiers bathing on a troop transport.  No explicit nudity, but clearly it shows a bunch of naked men together.

He also did covers for magazines besides the Saturday Evening Post.  Here's a barely-covered man on this 1907 Collier's magazine cover depicting the god Mercury.

Here's a cover for a 1915 issue of Physical Culture magazine.

Here's an illustration for the 1910 book "The Voice in the Rice" by Gouverneur Morris.

Typical of Leyendecker's work is this illustration for a Scribner's calendar in 1908, showing muscular men but no outright nudity.

Leyendecker did paint some explicit nudes as an art student.  This is Nude in the Academie, 1896, painted when he was studying art in Paris.

We end by contrasting Leyendecker with Norman Rockwell.  Here is Rockwell's famous 1943 picture of Thanksgiving, Freedom From Want.  A beautiful depiction of family values.

Compare it to Leyendecker's Saturday Evening Post cover for Thanksgiving, 1928.  Ironic and slyly humorous, there are no family values here.  Leyendecker shows us how Thanksgiving had changed from 1628 to 1928, from a Bible-toting Pilgrim to an occasion for football.  This was before football games were televised, so it's even more apt today.  Note that his football player manages to be handsome and have suggestively ripped clothes.

Leyendecker's work went out of fashion in the 1930s.  When he died in 1951, his funeral was attended by only five people: his partner Charles Beach, three of his former male models, and Norman Rockwell.