"Boy Scouts Signaling with Flags, Post Cover"   Lot no. 4794

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By Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951)

1911
30" x 21"
Oil on Canvas
Signed Lower Right

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The Saturday Evening Post cover, September 2, 1911

LITERATURE:
Boys' Life magazine, The Boy Scouts of America, November 1912, cover;
L.S. Cutler, J.G. Cutler, J.C. Leyendecker, American Imagist, New York, 2008, p. 112

 

Created just a year after the founding of the Boy Scouts of America in 1910, J.C. Leyendecker's Boy Scouts Signaling with Flags quickly became one of the most iconic and widely circulated images in the organization's history. The painting beautifully captures the core values of scouting, such as leadership, teamwork, and preparedness. It has been reproduced countless times across Boy Scouts materials, cementing its status as one of the most important visual representations of the movement.

The scene shows two scouts engaged in flag signaling, a crucial skill in the early 20th century and a requirement for earning the prestigious Eagle Scout rank until 1950. The central scout, holding his flags high, exemplifies confident leadership, while the second scout, with binoculars in hand, represents vigilance and teamwork. Their sturdy uniforms, focused expressions, and determined postures reflect the self-reliance that has always been a cornerstone of the Boy Scouts.

The painting specifically illustrates Semaphore Code, a visual communication system developed by French engineer Claude Chappe in 1794, in which the position of two flags conveys letters of the Latin alphabet. In this image, the scout is signaling the letter "L," while the second scout watches for signals from others. Semaphore and flag signaling were vital skills in scouting before being phased out with the introduction of newer technologies like the telegraph and telephone.



Explore related art collections: $100,000 & Above / Children / Saturday Evening Post Covers / Magazine Covers / 1910s

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