Happy new year!
This illustration by J.C. Leyendecker appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in late 1908. It was one of his earliest New Year's babies; his first -- the first -- was in 1906.
Leyendecker had a gift for creating holiday icons as well as portraying impossibly handsome men for advertisements and magazine covers (one was his life partner, model Charles Beach). At the top of his game, Leyendecker was America's top illustrator, throwing high society parties and renting a studio in Texas Guinan's building, where he had a dumbwaiter that ran to her speakeasy. Young Norman Rockwell so wanted to learn from Leyendecker that he moved to a home near his in a New York suburb. Leyendecker's story, along with a vast showcase of his work, can be found in the book "J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist," reviewed this Sunday.
Today is Wednesday, and the New Year is knocking at the door. May your 2009 be rosy-cheeked and carrying a big sack of books.
Happy new year from Jacket Copy!
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: American Illustrators Gallery NYC / 2008 © by National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I.
