The Art of J.C.Leyendecker

Although J.C. Leyendecker’s cover art for the ubiquitous magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, could ever be classified as homoerotic, there are tantalizing glimpses of what might have been. In 1899 J.C. Leyendecker created his first drawing for the magazine, and the partnership would last for the next four decades. Heavily inspired by the Art Noveau movement, and Norman Rockwell, Leyendecker’s images had an immediacy and a trademark style. His covers often portrayed handsome, young males, as sailors, soldiers, athletes, and heroic figures.
In 1903 Leyendecker discovered his muse and almost forty year lover, in Charles Beach. Beach was the model and inspiration for many of Leyendecker’s later iconic covers. Leyendecker died in 1951, a highly secretive man, little is truly known about their relationship and to date there are very few photographs of Beach in existence.