Joseph Christian Leyendecker
The Voice in the Rice

About the Item

Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed Lower Left In the 1890s and early 1900s, as J.C. Leyendecker was developing his pictorial work for advertisements, magazine covers, and posters, he also illustrated a number of novels to supplement his income. These titles include One Fair Daughter (1895), Ships that Pass in the Night (1898), The Kiss of Glory (1902), Ridolfo (1906), The Crimson Conquest (1907), Get Rich Quick Wallingford (1908), The Voice in the Rice (1910) and The Lonely Guard (1912). The present work is one of six Leyendecker illustrations from Gouverner Morris' The Voice in the Rice, published in book form in 1911. The novel centers on a dashing young man, Michael Bourne, who, after surviving a shipwreck off the coast of South Carolina, washes ashore near the Santee River and encounters a secret slaveholding community. Lord Nairn, a wheelchair-bound tyrant with hypnotic powers, governs this supposedly utopian society, and he soon feels threatened by Michael when they begin to compete for the affections of Mary Moore. Michael can never quite meet Mary in person, but instead hears her melodious voice drifting through the rice swamps (hence the book's title). Exhibiting Leyendecker's quick brushwork and penchant for the idealized figure, Voice in the Rice depicts the moment that a guest arrives to socialize with Michael and the other young people in this mysterious community: "At the landing a very beautiful girl, dressed for tennis, was stepping out of a canoe. Her paddler, a short negro of great power, surly and taciturn-looking, backed his canoe and shot off in the rice. I was presented to Miss Stevens of the Heronry. She seemed to have less eyes than the rest, and to express herself with more sense and less banter. . . . She looked at me with steady blue eyes, . . . [and] I thought to myself, 'That is the way Mary Moore would look at one, only not so much so.' [I] strolled part way back to the court with her, and it was arranged that she should take tea with Lady Moore that afternoon, and that, if I felt very strong and careful, I should take her canoeing in the cool" (G. Morris, The Voice in the Rice, New York, 1911, pp. 55-56). EXHIBITED: Union League Club, Chicago, Illinois, "An American Vision," December 1-2, 1984; American Illustrators Gallery/ Judy Goffman Fine Art, "J.C. Leyendecker: An Age of Elegance," New York, 1989; Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, "J.C. Leyendecker -- A Retrospective," November 8, 1997-May 25, 1998; Museum of American Illustrators at Society of Illustrators, New York, "Americans Abroad," May 21-July 12, 2008. LITERATURE: G. Morris, "Voice in the Rice," Saturday Evening Post, June 1909; Curtis Publishing Co., Reflections of a Decade -- 1901-1910, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1980, p. 111, illustrated; Union League Club, An American Vision, exhibition catalogue, Chicago, Illinois, 1984, p. 8, no. 15, illustrated; A. Carter, Americans Abroad, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2008, n.p., no. 27, illustrated; L. Cutler and J. Cutler, J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist, New York, 2008, p. 217, illustrated.

Creator:
Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874 - 1951, American)
Dimensions:
Height: 29 in (73.66 cm)Width: 21 in (53.34 cm)
Medium:
Oil,Canvas
Period:
20th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Fort Washington, PA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU38436327992
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Joseph Christian Leyendecker

Joseph Christian "J.C." Leyendecker was born in Germany in 1874. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1882. His eldest brother, Adolph, became a prominent stained glass artist, and Joe, as he was called, had an early artistic calling.

After studying at the Chicago Art Institute under John H. Vanderpoel, J.C. Leyendecker enrolled at the Académie Julien in 1896, where he studied for a year with his younger brother Frank in the Beaux-Arts tradition. During his time there, he was exposed to and influenced by the works of Art Nouveau painters and printmakers Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Chéret and Alphonse Mucha, with whom he formed a strong friendship. The next year, he staged his first one-man exhibition at the Salon du Champ-de-Mars and made the auspicious acquaintance of Paul Gauguin.

In 1898, Leyendecker produced the first of 48 covers for Collier’s magazine. The next year, he painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post magazine, which was the beginning of a 44-year association with that esteemed publication. Throughout his career, he would also paint covers for Life magazine, illustrations for a library of books, and transform advertising for such companies as B. Kuppenheimer & Co. and Interwoven Socks. His work for Arrow Shirt is the most well-known and beloved.

Using his lover and manager, Charles Beach, as a model, Leyendecker created the ultimate image of modern American masculinity. His work for Kuppenheimer, also known as the House of Kuppenheimer, is just as iconic. Founded in 1876, the company became the manufacturer of uniforms for the United States Army during World War I. Thanks to Leyendecker's advertising, the firm became synonymous with the ultimate in male taste and desirability.

Unfortunately, near the end of his career, as Leyendecker’s associations with Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post came to an end, his work fell into obscurity. When he died in 1951, his great friend Norman Rockwell, who commemorated their relationship in his painting Waiting for the Art Editor, served as one of his pallbearers.

Find original J.C. Leyendecker prints and paintings on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by M.S. Rau)