John Held Jr.

With unflinching irreverence and caustic wit, John Held Jr.’s pen lampooned the very decadence and superficiality of the Roaring Twenties, that he, in many ways helped manufacture and is so closely associated with. Although brilliant in their satirical evaluation of the Flaming Youth of the 1920′s and early 30′s, Held’s flappers, sheiks and drugstore cowboys constitute only a portion of his diverse body of work. Still, the images inhabited by these impulsive degenerates certainly remain his most durable.

Held sold his first piece of artwork at the age of nine, and his first cartoon to Life Magazine, at the age of fifteen. Held received very little formal training, yet was surrounded by creativity and artistic purpose from his birth. His father, John Sr., played the coronet in a popular band of his own organizing, taught his son the techniques of engraving and woodcut, all the while encouraging John Jr.’s natural inclination for drawing. Held became the sports cartoonist for the Salt Lake City Tribune in 1905 and soon thereafter began creating his famous block prints, which caricatured the ideas and social mores of his late-Victorian childhood.

Held went east to New York around 1910 after marrying Myrtle Jennings, society editor of the Salt Lake City Tribune. He was not, however, an immediate success. Although Held would soon receive commissions from Vanity Fair and The New York Times Sunday Magazine, the first several years in the city saw him sharing a cockroach-infested apartment with four roommates and drawing vegetables for a seed catalog, in order to survive. An excellent book, titled The Most of John Held Jr., contains a forward by Carl J. Weinhardt, which describes in detail Held’s next memorable career move:

 When the United States entered World War I, Held was hired by U.S. Naval Intelligence as an artist and cartographer. He joined two Mayan experts, archeologist Sylvanus Morely and anthroplogist Herbert Spinden, on an expedition to Central America. The expedition, co-sponsored by the America Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Foundation, was to study Mayan inscriptions and art forms with one eye and keep the other peeled for German submarine activity offshore. John’s mission was to make coastal maps and to sketch installations and possible sites for additional military operations, as well as record the Mayan hieroglyphics…

This strange venture proved extremely valuable to Held, as he was able to not only fulfill his duty to the U.S. Navy but hone his skills on sketches for comics, based on wartime gags. Upon his return to New York, Held’s singular stylistic voice would soon emerge, placing him at the forefront of the city’s sophisticated set.

The mid-to-late 1920′s were in many ways Held’s peak years; financially, emotionally and artistically. He had by this time divorced and remarried, purchased a farm in Connecticut and adopted three children with his new wife “Johnnie” Johnson. His cartoon series “Oh! Margy” and it’s sequel “Merely Margy” were seen in nearly seventy newspapers across the country and magazines such as Life, Judge and College Humor were a never-ending source for lucrative commissions. In fact, Held later claimed to have routinely received blank checks from people in need of his services!

By the end of the decade, however, Held was exhausted. He lost a small fortune in the Stock Market crash, divorced again and then finally suffered a mental breakdown in 1931. John Held Jr. would live out the rest of his days in relative quiet. As an artist-in-residence at Harvard and then the University of Georgia, Held continued to create, concentrating his efforts on cityscapes in watercolor and bronze sculpture. John finally found marital bliss with Margaret Janes, his fourth wife and together they worked for the Signal Corps during World War II. Held passed away in 1958.

I first stumbled upon John Held Jr. in the aforementioned book, The Most of John Held Jr., while scouring the shelves of the public library as a teenager. At that point, my artistic enthusiasms were concentrated on digesting the work of American realists such as Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and Harvey Dunn. I was initially attracted to John Held Jr. for the same reasons I remain fascinated to this day. He was obviously a natural talent, with a sharp eye for observation and wry sense of humor. Held was also able to exaggerate, giving description and subtlety to form in a way that was telling and comical, yet stopped short of tasteless absurdity. His impact upon my own work cannot be underestimated. To one of my all-time favorites, John Held Jr., I say thank you. Illostribute salutes you–

Steffi Schuetze

Scott MacDonald

Scott Balmer

Leo Matsuda

Nate Wragg

Freddy Boo

 Toby Thane Neighbors

Seo Kim

To all participants, thank you for taking the time to contribute and for your enthusiastic support. The books referenced for this article are as follows:

The Most of John Held Jr. published by The Stephen Greene Press

John Held, Jr. Illustrator of the Jazz Age by Shelley Armitage, published by Syracuse University Press

The Illustrator in America: 1860-2000 by Walt Reed, The Society of Illustrators

J.C. Leyendecker

The preeminent American illustrator for the first three decades of the Twentieth Century, J.C. Leyendecker’s influence has encompassed a countless number of visual artists, while spanning several generations. His emphatic brushwork and heroic, young men, have stamped an indelible image of sophistication and virility, upon America’s visual conscience.

Joseph Christian Leyendecker was born in Germany in 1874 and came to America at the age of eight. Studying first at the Chicago Art Institute, he completed his formal artistic training at the Acadamie Julian in Paris.

Upon his return, as a thoroughly trained artist with immense technical facility, Leyendecker had no difficulty in obtaining top commissions for advertising illustrations and cover designs for the leading publications…His advertising illustrations made his clients famous. The Arrow Collar Man was a byword for the debonair, handsome male, and women wrote thousands of love letters to him…

From Walt Reed’s The Illustrator in America: 1860-2000, The Society of Illustrators, Inc.

Renewed interest during the 1970s, ushered in a new generation of enthusiasts. The poster design by Richard Amsel, for George Roy Hill’s The Sting from 1973, was directly influenced by Leyendecker’s work for The Saturday Evening Post. Four years later he would be inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. Even today, his iconic style continues to inspire the men’s fashion industry, as seen in Karl Lagerfeld’s recent collection of photography for VMAN’s magazine. Arguably, Leyendecker’s archetypal male has, in essence, become the fashion industry’s standard for the male model. 

My own interest in Leyendecker began with Norman Rockwell, my favorite illustrator. Many of Rockwell’s earliest commissions disclose a straightforward influence, specifically the brushwork constructing the interior form of some sturdy male figure.

Though Rockwell would eventually shed these overt appropriations, in my opinion his work retained a definitive Leyendecker influence. The template used by both artists for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, is strikingly similar: The story is told with one or two figures, a few necessary props, all inhabiting a very small space within the visual plane of reference.  

Perhaps this was by design. Most likely this formula was seen as economically successful by the art directors of their day and both Leyendecker and Rockwell were creating within a similar set of graphic boundaries. 

Interestingly enough, there seems to be certain academic controversy concerning the creative relationship between these two illustrators, propelled in part by a relatively new book (2008) entitled J.C. Leyendecker, published by Abrams Books. Rockwell has undoubtedly eclipsed Leyendecker in notoriety and influence. However, I would argue that Leyendecker’s artistic innovations established much of the visual groundwork, upon which Rockwell was able to build his illustrious career.

Regardless of one’s position concerning this argument, his impact upon the visual arts is indisputable. Therefore, with due reverence illostribute salutes one J.C. Leyendecker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To all the contributing illustrators, I would like to extend a special thanks. This is hopefully only the beginning, of a long and valuable collaboration.

Grain Edit

I was just informed via email, that my work was featured on the very cool graphic design blog Grain Edit today! How cool is that? What an unexpected pleasure. A big thank you to Ms. Grace Danico for the post and write-up.

Invitations

Invitations for participation have been sent out and so far, the response has been very positive! Nearly everyone who has responded, has indicated a serious interest in contributing–if not right away, at least at some point in the near future. I’m encouraged and excited. This is going to be fun. Details concerning the first post will follow shortly.

Welcome

Welcome to illostribute.com, a new collaborative illustration blog!