Under Cover: J. C. Leyendecker and American Masculinity

Before Norman Rockwell there was J. C. Leyendecker (a mentor to Rockwell; the two were neighbors and friends), whose illustrations helped create the early 20th-century American visual culture—most notably through work on consumer goods ads such as Cluett Peabody & Company’s “Arrow Collar Man” and features in the Saturday Evening Post. In addition to exploring how the artist’s queer gaze impacted his depictions, the exhibit examines the impact of white privilege, presenting Leyendecker’s paintings alongside art showing fashionable African American men during the Harlem Renaissance.