"Happy Landing, Amoco Advertisement" Lot no. 2906
By Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951)
1945 (Estimated)
20.75" x 40.00", Framed 30.75" x 50.00"
Oil on Canvas
Signed Lower Left
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During his over four decades as the preeminent illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post, Joseph Christian Leyendecker's clever illustrations were eagerly anticipated by enthusiastic readership across the country, and none more so than his holiday designs. One of Leyendecker's most celebrated creations was his groundbreaking idea of the New Year's Baby. Originally portrayed as a fleshy sweet-faced child complete with tiny angel wings, the New Year's Baby gradually morphed into a worldly tot acutely aware of the social and political issues facing the nation at the time. In fact, Leyendecker's final Post cover illustration was the 1943 New Year's Baby.
Following the success of these Post covers, the artist was hired to create advertisements for the American Oil Company (AMOCO). Throughout the 1940s and through the final years of his life, Leyendecker produced ads incorporating his famed New Year's Baby into AMOCO advertisements, as in the present work, Happy Landing, published in 1945.
Preliminary study also available in the collection: http://www.illustratedgallery.com/artwork/original/2907/by-joseph-christian-leyendecker
Explore related art collections: Automotive/Transport / Advertisements / Poster Illustrations / New Year's / Children / Humor / 1940s / $100,000 & Above
See all original artwork by Joseph Christian Leyendecker
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Joseph Christian Leyendecker was born in Montabaur, Germany, and came to America at the age of eight. Showing an early interest in painting, he got his first job at 16 in a Chicago engraving house on the strength of some larger pictures he had painted on kitchen oilcloth. In the evenings after work, he studied under Vanderpoel at the Chicago Art Institute, and saved for five years to be able to go to France and attend the Academie Julian in Paris.
Upon his return, as a thoroughly trained artist with immense technical facility, Leyendecker had no difficulty in obtaining top commissions for advertising illustrations and cover designs for the leading publications. His first Post cover was done in 1899, and he did well over 300 more during the next 40 years. Among the most famous of these was his annual New Years Baby series.
His advertising illustrations made his clients famous. The Arrow Collar Man was a byword for the debonair, handsome male, and women wrote thousands of love letters to him in care of Cluett Peabody & Company. His illustrations for Kuppenheimer Clothes were equally successful in promoting an image of suited elegance. He was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1977.A major retrospective exhibition of Leyendecker's work was mounted at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1997-98.
Joseph Christian Leyendecker was born in Montabaur, Germany, and came to America at the age of eight. Showing an early interest in painting, he got his first job at 16 in a Chicago engraving house on the strength of some larger pictures he had painted on kitchen oilcloth. In the evenings after work, he studied under Vanderpoel at the Chicago Art Institute, and saved for five years to be able to go to France and attend the Academie Julian in Paris.
Upon his return, as a thoroughly trained artist with immense technical facility, Leyendecker had no difficulty in obtaining top commissions for advertising illustrations and cover designs for the leading publications. His first Post cover was done in 1899, and he did well over 300 more during the next 40 years. Among the most famous of these was his annual New Years Baby series.
His advertising illustrations made his clients famous. The Arrow Collar Man was a byword for the debonair, handsome male, and women wrote thousands of love letters to him in care of Cluett Peabody & Company. His illustrations for Kuppenheimer Clothes were equally successful in promoting an image of suited elegance. He was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1977.A major retrospective exhibition of Leyendecker's work was mounted at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1997-98.
Kent Steine