Advertisement for Arrow collars & shirts, J.C. Leyendecker
J.C. Leyendecker (1874 - 1951), was an illustrator and entrepreneur. He painted strong, athletic men and lithe, feminine women with equal ease. He inspired Norman Rockwell and created long-running characters like Saturday Evening Post babies and the Arrow collar man. A book and magazine illustrator (he painted 322 covers for the Saturday Evening Post), he also painted for American Weekly, Collier's, Popular Magazine, Century Illustrated, Ladies' Home Journal. He produced ads for Kuppenheimer, Interwoven socks, Chesterfield (utilizing the same fade-away technique as friend Coles Phillips), Kellogg's, Ivory, and Pierce Arrow. He so defined an era of fashion in the early 20th century that Richard Amsel paid homage to him in his poster art for The Sting (which was parodied by Norman Mingo for MAD Magazine).