You may not know the name J.C. Leyendecker, but his artwork shaped American visual culture in the early 1900s. As a preeminent illustrator and commercial artist, Leyendecker created captivating advertisements and countless covers for the Saturday Evening Post.
"As a queer artist whose illustrations for a mainstream audience often had unspoken queer undertones, his work is especially revealing for what it says about the cultural attitudes towards homosexuality of the period," the New-York Historical Society wrote. The Historical Society will display the artist's works this spring.
You'll see 19 of the artist’s original oil paintings, from magazine covers to roadside billboards. His aesthetic influence extended to Norman Rockwell, his colleague and eventual successor as the Post’s premier illustrator.
"Under Cover: J. C. Leyendecker and American Masculinity" will be on view May 5-August 13, 2023.