JC Leyendecker (Saturday Evening Post Prelim)

Saturday Evening Post (Preliminary Painting), 1932
Oil on Canvas
20 3/4 × 27 1/2 in

Joseph Christian Leyendecker (American, 1874-1951)
Study for a Saturday Evening Post Cover, September 3, 1932
Monogram signature "JC Leyendecker" l.r., identified in an inscription from John A. Weatherwax on the reverse.
Oil with pencil on canvas, 20 3/4 x 27 1/2 in. (52.8 x 69.7 cm)

Condition: Applied pencil grid to scale for transfer, scattered minor losses and abrasions, area of covering retouch to l.l. corner, varnish discoloration, glue residue and accretions to edges, laid down on wood panel, replica of the Saturday Evening Post cover affixed to the reverse.

Provenance: Gift from the artist to John A. Weatherwax (Chicago) in 1936, by family descent to the current owner.

N.B. John Weatherwax graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and then became Art Director at Leo Burnett agency and President of the Art Director's Club of Chicago. He knew many of the leading arts figures of the time including László Moholy-Nagy, Frank Lloyd Wright, Carl Sandburg, Grant Wood, and Rockwell Kent. Later he relocated to California and served as Chairman of the Board of Weatherwax, Spurgeon, Heath, Borchell, a boutique advertising agency in Los Angeles.