![dragon magazine cover art dragon magazine cover art](https://www.tsrarchive.com/in/uk/uk-drag175.jpg)
His work brought him financial success and international notoriety during the golden age of American illustration. In some ways, Leyendecker happened to be a trained artist in the right place, at the right time. His famed illustrative depictions range from calendar holidays to collectable artwork of cherubim babies, relatable American life, and sports and war heroes. Leyendecker’s strong models defined manhood for an entire generation. His work for Arrow Collar single-handedly increased the company’s sales to $32 million a year, making it the nation’s most successful men’s clothing company.
#Dragon magazine cover art serial#
His ingenuity led to serial popularity, whether by the continuation of his New Year’s Baby theme for The Post as started in the magazine’s December 29th, 1906 edition, or his invention of the debonair Arrow Collar Man while working for Cluett, Peabody & Co. Not only did the artist work for magazines, he also created some of the most successful advertising campaigns in American history. Over the course of his artistic career, Leyendecker completed 322 illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post and countless others for magazines such as The American Weekly, Success, and Collier’s. The brothers returned to Chicago in 1898 and together opened a studio for two years before moving their firm to New York City in 1900. Leyendecker quickly rose to prominence while in Europe, earning a spot in a major painting exhibition at The Salon Champs de Mars in 1897. and his brother Frank had enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris, France. In early 1896, the artist won a magazine cover competition for Century Magazine, which elevated his artistic brand to national fame. had given Leyendecker a solo contract to illustrate sixty images for a client’s private bible, demonstrating utmost faith in his artistic abilities. Vanderpool had studied, researched, and even published a book on human anatomy, passing on to Leyendecker much of what artistic anatomical knowledge was available at the time.īy age 19, Manz & Co. He learned quickly, rising to a job as Associate Illustrator under his Chicago Art Institute instructor, John Henry Vanderpool. At the age of 15, Leyendecker apprenticed with J. Having a natural talent for art, Leyendecker and his brother, Frank, studied and worked together on small projects wherever they could find them. His close relationships with his two brothers, Francis Xavier and Adolph, along with sister Mary Augusta, would later impact the adorable infant and adolescent depictions of his most famous illustrations. Leyendecker’s babies, advertisements, and holiday illustrations.īorn to Peter and Elizabeth Leyendecker in Montabaur, Germany on March 23rd, 1874, “J.C.” Leyendecker emigrated from Germany to Chicago, Illinois with his family in 1882 at the age of 8. Through his illustrious career as a popular cover artist, The Post rang in the early twentieth century with dozens of J.C. While those familiar with The Saturday Evening Post often think of Norman Rockwell as its most prominent illustrator, his mentor, Joseph Christian Leyendecker, made the Post an iconic magazine.