Joseph Christian Leyendecker was born in the West German town of Montabaur in 1874 and
his brother Francis Xavier arrived 2 years later.
With their parents, and their older brother Adolph and sister Mary Augusta they emigrated
to the USA in 1882 and set up home in Chicago.
Adolph left for Kansas to become a successful stained glass designer, and at the age of
15 Joseph found work for a Chicago engraving company.
He also undertook evening classes at the Chicago Art Institute, and in 1893 at the age of 19
he completed his first commission for 60 Biblical illustrations, published by his employers.
And while Joseph made inroads into his career as a professional illustrator Frank enrolled
into the Art Institute determined to follow in his footsteps
Once he had completed his studies the brothers sailed for France to study at the prestigious
Académie Julian in Paris for a year.
It was while they were in Paris they first encountered the decorative graphics and posters
of the Belle Époque, and in 1896 Joseph entered and won a competition to design a cover for
Century magazine with an image which owed an obvious debt to the Art Nouveau styling
of Alphonse Mucha.
Unfortunately it was also while in Paris that Frank first developed a taste for the drug
morphine.
On their return to the USA the brothers shared an apartment in Illinois and a studio in Chicago,
and while Joseph continued to build on his early reputation, he also gave help and advice
to Frank to help him get his career under way.
In 1897 Joseph began designing posters and covers for the Inland Printer magazine, and
in 1899 he created his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post, printed in an ill-advised
red.
This would prove to be the first of many, and among others at this time he appeared
regularly on the cover of Success magazine.
At the turn of the century the two brothers and their sister Mary moved to New York City
and at this point Frank's career began to rival that of his brother.
Between 1902 and 1905 he painted several covers for Collier’s magazine, some of which mimicked
Joseph's more formal construction, but others which utilised his own more organic approach.
And Like Joseph he created cover art for the Saturday Evening Post.
But it was undoubtedly the series of beautifully staged, usually romantic images he produced
for Colliers with which he enjoyed his greatest success.
And by this point his popularity and public profile was if only briefly every bit as strong
as that of Joseph's.
In the early years of the new century Joseph continued to consolidate his position with
more work for the Evening post, and Success magazine among others.
Additionally he produced a few illustrations for pulp magazines, and even created some
book covers using an atypical blockish graphic technique.
Frank also created book illustration for covers and memorably the page illustrations for Rudyard
Kipling's futuristic story With The Night Mail in 1909.
And just like Joseph he juggled his commitments to make sure he could continue keeping his
magazine clients happy.
By this time he was appearing regularly on the covers and in the pages of American Vogue,
and the equally prestigious and influential Vanity Fair, both of which were a particularly
good fit for his frivolous costumed escapades.
In their pursuit of visual perfection both brothers were scornful of the use of photography
and favoured working from posed life models.
But despite their embrace of firmly traditional methodology neither if them ever showed the
slightest interest in creating art rather than commercial illustration
Starting in 1912 Joseph undertook a major long running commission to create images of
20 children to promote Kellogg's Corn Flakes.
And the popularity of what were known as The Kelloggs Kids propelled him very much into
the spotlight through his association with this highly successful campaign.
In 1914 the brothers along with Mary and Joseph's partner and model Charles Beach set up home
in a large mansion house and studio in the New Rochelle area of new York, with several
domestic staff to look after the property and its occupants.
When America joined the allies in the first World War in 1917, both brothers created a
large volume of recruitment posters and magazine art in support of the military and the war
effort.
And some of this work in particular revealed a level of idealisation and glamorisation
of the male figure that to contemporary eyes now seems unmistakably homoerotic.
Nevertheless it seems that few were aware of both Joseph and Frank's homosexuality at
the time, and it would have done their reputations and careers no good at all if it had become
common knowledge to many of their straight-laced clients.
Both worked in advertising but this was an area where Joseph outshone his younger brother
by a considerable margin.
Most of his work was for prestigious men's clothing companies and although Charles Beach
wasn't his only model he was certainly the most prominent, and became a celebrity of
sorts as the Arrow collar man.
The series of press ads he produced of immensely idealised handsome young men were considered
the epitome of male fashions at the time.
Frank also continued to take commissions from commercial clients too, and even worked on
the same men's clothing campaigns as Joseph.
And when he did he frequently mimicked what had become Joseph's trademark technique of
applying regular impasto brush strokes to create a particularly sculptural neo-classical
effect.
But in the early 1920s it was his professional relationship with the humour magazine Life
with which he achieved his greatest recognition.
But largely due to Frank's increasing morphine depencence, along with an equally prodigious
consumption of alcohol serious cracks were appearing in his relationship with Joseph.
Frank became increasingly resentful and paranoid about Joseph's greater success and it was
obvious that Frank was in serious physical and mental decline.
There were frequent heated arguments which also on occasion ended up as physical fights.
In 1924 Frank's last published work appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and he died
not long after at the age of 48 from an overdose.
Whether this was deliberate or accidental isn't known, and ultimately it makes little
difference.
Following Frank's untimely if predictable death, Joseph carried on working and the volume
of commissions coming his way was every bit as great as it had always been, despite the
growing popularity of Rockwell and others who were by now snapping at his heels.
The evidence or rather the general lack of it suggests that from this point onwards he
created much less advertising work, and certainly nothing as popular as his mens fashion press
ads.
Although he did produce a series of cheerful homely images to encourage Americans to consume
even greater amounts of coffee.
Almost all the work from the mid 1920s to the later 1930s was published in the Saturday
Evening Post.
By this point they had moved away from their earlier duotone print to full colour and Leyendecker's
fondness for setting his idealised scenarios and figures against plain white backgrounds
and continued use of impasto brushwork only increased the sculptural appeal of his illustrations
for the magazine.
The images he created were by turns romantic, nostalgic and comedic, but always impossibly
idealised evocations of the human experience.
But In 1936, the editor at the Saturday Evening Post retired, and his replacement was noticeably
less inclined to use Leyendecker's illustrations on the cover, favouring the younger Norman
Rockwell instead.
He was still commissioned by the Post on occasion but it was at at a much reduced rate.
And by the time the USA entered the second world war in 1941 there were distinct signs
that Leyendecker was generally considered to have outlived his usefulness .
His last cover for the Saturday Evening Post was of a New Year's Baby for January 1943,
bringing what had been arguably his most lucrative and celebrated series of commissions to an
end.
Other commissions continued but at nothing like the rate he had previously enjoyed.
Among them was a series of posters for the United States Department of War, using portraits
of military leaders encouraging the purchase of war bonds
But the decline continued, the household staff had to be let go, and Leyendecker became more
and more reclusive.
In the years following the war Joseph created several covers for the American Weekly and
the last of these seems to be the Christmas edition in 1948.
And in 1951 Joseph Leyendecker died of a heart attack at the age of 74.
What was left of his estate was bequeathed to Mary leyendecker and Charles Beach, and
following Joseph's death Beach sold off many of his original artworks for as much as he
could get.
In their careers both brothers had strived to create perfection, both in terms of their
technique and their idealisation of the figures they portrayed.
Their pictures were populated with handsome muscular men and glamorous beautiful women,
and even those in less idyllic circumstances were never shown to be really touched by the
harsher realities of life.
But then it may well be that it's this impossibly theatrical beauty that has led to their work
being among the most revered illustration of the 20th century.