JOSEPH CHRISTIAN LEYENDECKER (American 1874 - 1951) . Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, August ...

Description

JOSEPH CHRISTIAN LEYENDECKER (American 1874 - 1951)
Original cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, August 25, 1923
Oil on canvas
26 x 20in.
Signed lower right with a monogram

Regarding the irresistible appeal of J. C. Leyendecker's art, perhaps a perceptive review of his art show at the Art Student's League of New York in a 1912 issue of International Studio magazine analyzed his work best, "The work may be broadly characterized as possessing all the freedom but none of the careless disregard for detail which we associate with the impressionist. Every brush stroke was placed where it would do the most good, and once placed was left to tell its story with no niggling concealment of overpainting or 'faking.' This frank expression of the paint and the brush approaches the conception of craftsmanship in which the mark of the tool, for this painter is not of the school which seems ashamed of its honest canvas and oils, and attempts to outdo the camera and obliterate the media of its craft." Leyendecker stated his own approach for readers of the Post, "A cover is a poster and more related to murals, even sculpture, than to illustration. It should, therefore, tell its story on one plane, be without realistic perspective and distance. It should, too, tell its story in pantomime. It hits harder because it is a symbol; it is concentrated and says what it has to say in a straight line. It carries further because a good cover has a distinctive silhouette. The reader will notice it at a greater distance, and though he can't make out the design, still the design will pull him in."

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



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