Christmas Prayers

Joseph Christian Leyendecker started his career as an engraver's apprentice at the age of sixteen. Quickly promoted to a full-time staff artist, he went on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and later, with his brother Frank, at the Académie Julian in Paris. While abroad, the brothers were exposed to the striking advertisements of Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. After their short sojourn in France, they returned to Chicago, and Leyendecker began his tenure with The Saturday Evening Post, a successful relationship that yielded 322 cover illustrations. While Norman Rockwell has today become synonymous with the Post, he in fact only produced 321 covers—one less than Leyendecker.

Of note in Leyendecker's oeuvre were his holiday cover designs, particularly those for Christmas. Indeed, Leyendecker can be credited with the modern image of a stout and jolly Santa Claus. The present work captures that special spirit of Christmas in America that Leyendecker popularized through his cover illustrations.