Joseph Christian Leyendecker (American, 1874-1951). Spring Has Sprung, The Saturday Evening Post cover, April 7, 1917. O...

Description

Joseph Christian Leyendecker (American, 1874-1951)
Spring Has Sprung, The Saturday Evening Post cover, April 7, 1917
Oil on canvas
27 x 20 inches (68.6 x 50.8 cm)
Signed center right: JCLeyendecker

PROVENANCE:
Sotheby's, New York, September 21, 1994, lot 216 (as New Year Baby);
Charles Martignette, acquired from the above;
Estate of the above;
Heritage Auctions, Dallas, October 15, 2010, lot 78107;
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Along with Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker was the premier cover illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post, establishing its distinctive "look" through popular all-American characters. Leyendecker's rise in the illustration world exactly paralleled the modernization of the magazine from 1899-1937 under editor George Horace Lorimer, who sought to broaden readership by appealing to the "average American" -- hardworking, patriotic, practical, and wholesome middle-class men and women. Toward this end, each issue featured mainstream news articles, human-interest stories, editorials, cartoons, and poetry and fiction by such notables as Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Sandburg, and John Steinbeck. Cover and interior illustrations used humor and stock types -- children, athletes, courting couples, and Santa Claus -- to reiterate themes of patriotism, the happy nuclear family, traditional holidays, and hope for a better tomorrow.

Leyendecker designed his first cover for the Post in 1899, and over the next forty years, he created another 323 covers, his last one in 1943, six years after famed Post editor George H. Lorimer had retired, and the magazine assumed a new style. The artist's eagerly awaited holiday covers, particularly for New Year's, were his most memorable and helped transform the Post into the most widely circulated weekly magazine in America. Lorimer trusted Leyendecker's perfectionism, his carefully contoured compositions and decisive brushwork that he allowed him (and later Rockwell) to submit sketches rather than finished paintings as cover designs.

Leyendecker's most famous recurring Saturday Evening Post character was the New Year's baby, debuting on the cover of the December 29, 1906 issue. At first, Leyendecker's cherubic baby appeared on various holiday covers, including Easter and the Fourth of July. The character later evolved into the Post's emblem of the New Year, with a new character introduced at the start of each year. Not only is Spring has Sprung a delightful example of Leyendecker's iconic character, it is his final 'baby' cover created to represent a holiday other than New Years. This Easter cover features the rosy-cheeked cherub amongst traditional spring Tulips, rendered in the artist's characteristic staccato brushwork. Men, women and children alike can relate to the sleepy baby stretching and letting out a large yawn as he prepares to wake up from his winter slumber. With is peaceful and innocent incarnation of rebirth in spring, Spring Has Sprung resonates with the American public today as much as it did when it was introduced in 1917.


More information about Joseph Christian Leyendecker. See also: Leyendecker, Joseph Christian Artist.



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