.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
World War I Santa ran as the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on December 7th, 1918. After more than four decades as one of the preeminent illustrators for The Saturday Evening Post, Joseph Christian Leyendecker’s clever illustrations were eagerly anticipated by the enthusiastic readership across the country. So seminal were his holiday covers that the editors of The Post fervently appealed to the government to declare more holidays in hopes of increasing the magazine’s circulation.
Born in Germany, Leyendecker and his family immigrated to Chicago in 1882. His artistic career began at a local engraver's studio but his skills were quickly refined with classes at The Art Institute of Chicago and the Acadèmie Julian in Paris. While Leyendecker’s stay in Paris was brief, it exposed him to the striking advertisements of notable artists such as Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Upon his return to Chicago, he began his tenure with The Saturday Evening Post; a successful relationship that yielded 322 cover illustrations.
Leyendecker moved to New York City in 1900 and began creating advertisements for leading apparel manufacturers, including Interwoven Socks, B. Kuppenheimer & Co., and Cluette, Peabody & Company. The latter affiliation resulted in his celebrated Arrow Collar Ads. Deborah Solomon writes, “[Leyendecker] was the brand name who created brand names. His Arrow Collar Man was a bona fide sensation—a handsome, square-jawed man in a freshly pressed shirt, his hair glinting like blond metal…Leyendecker single-handedly changed advertising by switching the emphasis from text to image and making his pitch in emphatically visual terms.” (American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell, New York, 2013, p. 116)
Born in Germany, Leyendecker and his family immigrated to Chicago in 1882. His artistic career began at a local engraver's studio but his skills were quickly refined with classes at The Art Institute of Chicago and the Acadèmie Julian in Paris. While Leyendecker’s stay in Paris was brief, it exposed him to the striking advertisements of notable artists such as Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Upon his return to Chicago, he began his tenure with The Saturday Evening Post; a successful relationship that yielded 322 cover illustrations.
Leyendecker moved to New York City in 1900 and began creating advertisements for leading apparel manufacturers, including Interwoven Socks, B. Kuppenheimer & Co., and Cluette, Peabody & Company. The latter affiliation resulted in his celebrated Arrow Collar Ads. Deborah Solomon writes, “[Leyendecker] was the brand name who created brand names. His Arrow Collar Man was a bona fide sensation—a handsome, square-jawed man in a freshly pressed shirt, his hair glinting like blond metal…Leyendecker single-handedly changed advertising by switching the emphasis from text to image and making his pitch in emphatically visual terms.” (American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell, New York, 2013, p. 116)