Joseph Christian Leyendecker
Alden, Arrow Collar Advertisement, 1922
1922

About the Item

Medium: Oil on Canvas Laid Down on Board Signature: Inscribed with Title (Lower Center) Joseph Christian Leyendecker created the Arrow Collar Man in 1905 for Cluette, Peabody & Company, the manufacturer of a detachable collar for men's button-down shirts. Featured in several subsequent advertisements for the company, the figure grew beyond its advertising purpose into a cultural symbol of a lifestyle to which men of the time could aspire. Deborah Solomon explains that 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. A generation of college men regarded him as the go-to authority for fashion advice. Leyendecker single-handedly changed advertising by switching the emphasis from text to image and making his pitch in emphatically visual terms. Earlier, in the nineteenth century, most printed advertisements had been crammed with tiny, hard-to-read type imploring you to buy effective or ineffective remedies for your headaches and nerves and itchy skin. The Arrow Collar Man, by contrast, was selling a vision as much as a product. He was selling the notion that any man could acquire instant class by spending twenty cents on a detachable collar." (American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell, New York, 2013, p. 116) Press: L.S. Cutler, J.G. Cutler, J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist, New York, 2008, pp. 80-81, illustrated.

Creator:
Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874 - 1951, American)
Creation Year:
1922
Dimensions:
Height: 27.9 in (70.87 cm)Width: 21 in (53.34 cm)
Medium:
Board,Canvas,Oil
Period:
1920-1929
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Fort Washington, PA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU38431548453
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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)