JOSEPH CHRISTIAN LEYENDECKER | Newsboy

Private collection, New York, circa 1950
By descent to the present owners (their great granddaughters)

The Saturday Evening Post, December 18, 1909, cover illustration (©SEPS licensed by Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN. All rights reserved)
Jan Cohn, Covers of “The Saturday Evening Post:" Seventy Years of Outstanding Illustration from America’s Favorite Magazine, New York, 1995, p. 2, illustrated p. 4
Laurence S. Cutler and Judy Goffman Cutler, J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist, New York, 2008, illustrated p. 111

The canvas is unlined and there is frame abrasion along the extreme edges. Stretcher bar marks are faintly visible at all four edges and there appears to be fine scattered surface cracking with a pindot of associated loss in the man's shoe. Under UV: there are scattered spots and lines of inpainting likely to address cracking primarily in the background with a few other spots in the gentleman's coat and hat.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted for the December 18, 1909 cover of The Saturday Evening Post, Joseph Christian Leyendecker’s Newboy is a visual representation of the American Dream. In this scene rich with distinctly American symbolism, a young industrious newsboy stands on a grate for warmth while an older fur-clad gentleman reaches into his coin purse to reward the boy for his service and diligence. The wealthy man suggests the bright future for the newsboy and the opportunity for upward social mobility through hard work in a free American society. The scholar Jan Cohn writes: "By the end of the decade [1900-10], the covers of the Post were, like the magazine itself, fully incorporated into American mass culture. In the quality of the work and in the range of subjects, the covers had indeed become a reflection of America's ideas about itself" (Covers of “The Saturday Evening Post:" Seventy Years of Outstanding Illustration from America’s Favorite Magazine, New York, 1995, p. 9).