J. C. Leyendecker

As a staff artist at J. Manz & Company J. C. Leyendecker produced 60 Bible illustrations for the Powers Brothers Company, cover and interior illustrations for The Interior magazine, and frontispiece art for The Inland Printer. He also produced artwork for posters and book covers for the Chicago publisher E. A. Weeks.[5][6] He also provided artwork for a range of marketing materials for the Chicago men's clothier Hart, Schaffner & Marx.[7]

While in Paris, J. C. Leyendecker continued providing art to Hart, Schaffner & Marx, produced artwork for 12 covers of The Inland Printer, and won a contest (out of 700 entries) for the poster and cover of the midsummer 1896 issue of The Century magazine, which garnered national newspaper and magazine coverage.[1][2][3]

Upon his return from Paris in June 1897, Leyendecker illustrated for a range of mostly local clients including Hart, Schaffner & Marx, the Chicago department store Carson, Pirie & Scott, the Eastern Illinois Railroad, the Northern Pacific Railroad, Woman's Home Companion magazine, the stone cutter's trade journal Stone, Carter's monthly, the bird hobbyist magazine The Osprey, and books including Conan Doyle's Micah Clarke and Octave Thanet's A Book of True Lovers.[1][2] He also painted 132 scenes of America for L. W. Yaggy's laptop panorama of Biblical scenes titled Royal Scroll published by Powers, Fowler & Lewis (Chicago).[8]

On May 20, 1899, Leyendecker received his first commission for a cover for The Saturday Evening Post launching a forty-four-year association with the magazine. Eventually, his work would appear on 322 covers of the magazine, introducing many iconic visual images and traditions including the New Year's Baby, the pudgy red-garbed rendition of Santa Claus, flowers for Mother's Day, and firecrackers on the 4th of July.[1]

Leyendecker in his studio

During the 1890s, Leyendecker was active in Chicago's arts community. He exhibited with and attended social events by the Palette and Chisel Club, the Art Students League, and the Chicago Society of Artists. In December 1895, some of his posters were exhibited at the Siegel, Cooper & Company department store in Chicago. In January 1898 his posters for covers of The Inland Printer were exhibited at the Kimball Cafetier (Chicago).[2][9]

During his 1895-97 time studying in Paris, J. C. Leyendecker's work won four awards at the Académie Julian and one of his paintings titled "Portrait of My Brother" was exhibited in the Paris salon in 1897. One of his posters for Hart, Schaffner & Marx titled "The Horse Show" was exhibited as part of the award winning display of American manufacturers' posters at the Exposition Universelle (1900) in Paris.[7]

After relocating to New York City in 1902, Leyendecker continued illustrating books, magazine covers and interiors, posters, and advertisements for a wide range of ever-larger and more-prominent clients.

His illustrations for men's product advertising, pulp magazines, and college posters earned him a reputation as specialist in illustrations of men.[10] Major clients included the Philadelphia suitmaker A. B. Kirschbaum,[7] Wick Fancy Hat Bands,[11] Gillette Safety Razors,[12] E. Howard & Co. watches, Ivory Soap, Williams Shaving Cream, Karo Corn Syrup, Kingsford's Corn Starch, Interwoven socks, B. Kuppenheimer & Co., Cooper Underwear, and Cluett Peabody & Company, maker of Arrow brand shirts and detachable shirt collars and cuffs.

The male models who appeared in Leyendecker's 1907-30 illustrations for Arrow shirt and collar ads were often referred to as "the" Arrow Collar Man even though they were modeled by a number of different men, some of whom went on to successful careers in theater, film, and television. Some models include Brian Donlevy, Fredric March, Jack Mulhall, Neil Hamilton, Ralph Forbes, and Reed Howes.[13]

One of Leyendecker's most frequently used models was the Canadian-born Charles A. Beach (1881–1954). Leyendecker met Beach in 1903 when Beach came to the artist's New York studio looking for modeling work.[14] Beach subsequently appeared in many of Leyendecker's illustrations and the two enjoyed a nearly 50-year professional and personal relationship. Many Leyendecker biographers have described that relationship as having a romantic and sexual dimension.[4][15][16][17]

Another important Leyendecker client was Kellogg's cereals. As part of a major advertising campaign, he painted a series of twenty different images of children eating Kellogg's Corn Flakes.[18]

During the first World War and Second World War Leyendecker painted military recruitment posters and war bonds posters for the U.S. government.

Leyendecker home on Mount Tom Road in New Rochelle, New York

After 1930, Leyendecker's career began to slow, perhaps in reaction to the popularity of his work in the previous decade or as a result of the economic downturn following the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Around 1930-31, Cluett Peabody & Company ceased using Leyendecker's illustrations in its advertisements for Arrow collars and shirts. In 1936, George Horace Lorimer, the famous editor at the Saturday Evening Post, retired and was replaced by Wesley Winans Stout (1937–1942) and then Ben Hibbs (1942–1962), both of whom rarely commissioned Leyendecker to illustrate covers.[19] Leyendecker's last cover for the Saturday Evening Post was of a New Year Baby for the January 2, 1943, issue.[20]

New commissions were fewer in the 1930s and 1940s. These included posters for the United States Department of War, in which Leyendecker depicted commanding officers of the armed forces encouraging the purchases of bonds to support the nation's efforts in World War II.[19]

No statements (in Leyendecker's own words) survive concerning his sexual desires, behavior, or identity; however, what is known about his personal life fits the pattern historians have identified for many gay men who lived during his time.[4][16][17][21][22]

Leyendecker never married, and he lived with another man, model Charles A. Beach, for most of his adult life (1903–1951).[14] Beach was Leyendecker's studio manager and frequent model, and many biographers describe Beach as Leyendecker's romantic, sexual, or life partner. They also describe Leyendecker as "gay" or "homosexual."[1][3][4][16][23]

Some historians have attributed the homoeroticism in some of Leyendecker's work to his sexuality while others have pointed to the collaborative nature of commercial art making, which suggests the content of Leyendecker's work was more expressive of the times in which it was created than the artist's sexuality.[12][16][22][24][25]

In 1915, J. C., his brother Frank and sister Augusta Mary relocated from New York City to a newly built home and art studio in New Rochelle, New York, an art colony and suburb of New York City.[26] Sometime after 1918, Charles Beach also moved into the New Rochelle home.

Leyendecker and Beach reportedly hosted large galas attended by people of consequence from all sectors. The parties they hosted at their New Rochelle home/studio were important social and celebrity making events.[1]

While Beach often organized the famous gala-like social gatherings that Leyendecker was known for in the 1920s, he reportedly (by Norman Rockwell) also contributed largely to Leyendecker's social isolation in his later years. Beach reportedly forbade outside contact with the artist in the last months of his life.[27]

Due to his professional success, Leyendecker enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle with large home, domestic servants, and chauffeured car. However, when commissions began to wane in the 1930s, he was forced to curtail spending considerably. By the time of his death, Leyendecker had let all of the household staff at his New Rochelle estate go, with he and Beach attempting to maintain their home themselves.[1][2][3]

Leyendecker died on July 25, 1951, of an acute coronary occlusion at his home in New Rochelle. He was buried alongside his parents and brother Frank at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.[28]

Leyendecker's will directed his estate—house, furnishings, paintings, etc.—be divided equally between his sister Augusta Mary and Charles Beach. Though Leyendecker directed Beach to burn his drawings upon his death, Beach instead sold many of his drawings and paintings at a lawn sale.[3][14]

Other Leyendecker works were sold through New York's Society of Illustrators or given to the New York Public Library and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sister Augusta Mary Leyendecker retained many of J. C. Leyendecker's paintings for Kellogg's cereals, and donated them along with other family ephemera upon her death to the Haggin Museum.[1][2]

Examples of his original artwork can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), Norman Rockwell Museum (Stockbridge, MA), Haggin Museum (Stockton, CA), National Museum of American Illustration (Newport, RI), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (Los Angeles, CA), and Pritzker Military Museum & Library in Chicago, IL. Significant collections of Leyendecker's work as reproduced can be found in many major archives and library collections including the Hagley Museum and Library (Wilmington, DE), Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library (Wilmington, DE), New York Public Library (New York, NY), and the D. B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library Archives at Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO).

In Love with the Arrow Collar Man, a play written by Lance Ringel and directed by Chuck Muckle at Theatre 80 St. Marks from November to December 2017, dramatizes the life of Leyendecker and his life partner Charles Beach.

Coded, a 2021 film documentary, tells the story of Leyendecker and premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival in 2021.[36]