Wearing the so-called “tools of ignorance††mask and chest protector †this “Baseball Catcher,†Leyendecker’s 1909 Post cover prepares for what may be bone-jarring action at home plate.

One of the most prolific and successful commercial artists of America’s Golden Age of Illustration, Joseph Christian (“J.C.”) Leyendecker (1874‱951) captivated the public with striking depictions of beautiful, glamorous young women and handsome, fashionable young men. A reclusive man of warmth, humor, imagination, talent and perception, he had his finger on the national pulse, producing artwork that appealed to a broad audience.

Although he executed many paintings for other purposes, it was Leyendecker’s advertisements that made him famous, particularly “The Arrow Shirt Man.”

In his career, it can be argued that Leyendecker surpassed iconic artist-illustrator N.C. Wyeth in his impact on American culture. With his readily recognizable “Leyendecker Look,” he helped shape the face of a nation, created dozens of iconic images and virtually invented the concept of branding in advertising.

A major factor in US advertising throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century, Leyendecker created the model of the well-dressed American male with his menswear advertisements. His images, particularly of chiseled, handsome men, struck a chord with people eager to adopt a glamorous lifestyle, the foundation of modern advertising.

Between 1896 and 1950, Leyendecker painted more than 400 magazine covers, of which well more than 300 were for The Saturday Evening Post. Only Norman Rockwell, two decades later, was so prolifically identified with one publication. Indeed, Leyendecker became a major influence on the art of illustration and a model for a generation of younger artists, notably Rockwell, who began his career emulating Leyendecker.

Norman Rockwell, who admired and sought to emulate Leyendecker’s art and subjects, was influenced early on by such Post covers as “Barking Up the Wrong Turkey,†1926. The plight of the food-toting lad and his animated reaction were characteristic of the work of both men.

Over the years, Leyendecker created such instantly recognizable icons as Santa Claus and the New Year’s baby that continue to this day as integral elements of Americana.

In spite of all these achievements, relatively little has been known about the man behind the illustrations until recent years. Last year, the first book on the artist in 30 years, J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist, by Laurence S. Cutler, Judy Goffman Cutler and the National Museum of American Illustration, was published by Abrams. This handsome and useful volume goes a long way toward filling the information void about this intriguing and gifted illustrator.

Now, an appealing and educational traveling exhibition has further opened up the life and exposed a new generation to the achievements of this remarkable artist. “J.C. Leyendecker: America’s ‘Other’ Illustrator,” organized by the Haggin Museum in Stockton, Calif., has visited museums in eight states. It is currently on view at the William King Regional Arts Center through November 22.

The “other” in the exhibition title refers to the fact that Rockwell, who greatly admired Leyendecker’s work, is considered by many to be America’s favorite illustrator. Both men created imagery that bonded them with the American people to an extent unequaled by any of their peers, with the exception of Wyeth. But whereas Rockwell’s current admirers include millions of nostalgic baby-boomers and others who grew up with his work, Leyendecker is little known to today’s public.

With illustrations, advertising artwork, magazine covers and posters, this exhibition offers documentation about the accomplishments of an outstanding illustrator to a new audience.

If Leyendecker’s standing within the ranks of leading American illustrators seems assured, the still sketchy details of his life stand in stark contrast to his self-created myth of artist-as-the-man. In person, he was short, shy and spoke with a stutter. As a gay man in a time when exposure meant ruin, he lived a reclusive life while courting fame through astute commercial strategies.

To promote enlistment in the US military during World War I, Leyendecker created posters like “Enlist Today, U.S. Marines, Stockton [Calif.],†1918, showing marines in action protecting America’s shores.

In their book, the Cutlers suggest that Leyendecker shied away from the limelight and “an adoring public” because he was “a homosexual when it was impossible to live such a life openly.” To ensure his privacy and “conceal his gay lifestyle, Leyendecker meticulously cleansed his files and records of anything homosexually explicit or implicit.”

Born in Montabaur, Germany, Leyendecker emigrated to Chicago with his family in 1882, when he was 8 years old. After showing early promise in drawing, he apprenticed at age 16 with an engraving firm, advancing to become a full-time staff artist while studying at the Chicago Art Institute. He won some magazine cover competitions and at 19 created 60 images for an illustrated edition of the Bible. “Rebekah at the Well,” 1893, is an accomplished but static example.

With his prize winnings and savings, Leyendecker and his artistically talented younger brother, Francis Xavier (“Frank” or “F.X.,” 1878‱924) studied in Paris for a year at the Académie Julian under the tutelage of neoclassical academic painter William Adolphe Bouguereau and others. Touring around Paris, they were exposed to Impressionism and popular Art Nouveau advertising posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and his compatriots.

Returning to Chicago in 1897, the brothers set up a studio in the Chicago Stock Exchange. J.C.’s “Advertisement for Chicago Evening Post,” 1898, reflected his European training in a serious plea for book-reading, bolstered by allegorical figures.

About this time, the brothers formulated a credo to prod them to produce their best work on time. “Buy more than you can afford,” it declared. “If every day you have to save yourself from ruin, every day you’ll work.” When they were young and successful, the concept generated a race to see who could outdo the other. “They made and spent large sums of money,” Haggin officials note, “dwarfing the previous income benchmarks for an illustrator.”

In Chicago, J.C. began his long association with Collier’s magazine, for whom he created nearly 50 covers, and The Saturday Evening Post for well more than 300 covers. During his 43 years with The Post , Leyendecker helped formulate the modern magazine cover as a special art form, sort of a small poster that quickly communicated its message. “His covers were animated by people and themes that resonated with his audience,” say officials of the Haggin, “because of his ability to capture and convey a range of human emotions and situations in his hallmark style of wide, crisp and controlled brushstrokes accented by bold highlights.”

To promote sales of the then little-known Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Leyendecker created an extensive series of endearing vignettes of male and female youngsters, ranging in age from “Baby in Highchair†to “Teen Boy,†1916, shown here, enjoying a bowl of the cereal. Each model seemed bent on outdoing the others in enjoying their corn flakes.

An early Post cover, “Boy Reciting for Teacher,” 1909, with a carefully dressed youngster emoting for his bespectacled teacher, who has already received an apple, puts one in mind of Rockwell’s later covers. As do the well-dressed young man being greeted by his aging mother and eager dog in “Welcome Home,” 1914, and the youngster in distress as dogs wrestle for control of the meat he is carrying home in “Barking Up the Wrong Turkey,” 1926. Leyendecker and Rockwell had the ability to use their art to dramatize nostalgic, everyday incidents among ordinary people.

At the height of his career, Leyendecker’s “Queen of Spring,” 1931, filled most of the cover space with the lovely royal’s colorful, decorative gown and an elaborate tower of flowers and birds to the left. It reflects the artist’s innate sense of color and composition.

Brother Frank, a skilled artist in his own right, gained early recognition for an acclaimed series of monthly covers for Collier’s, 1902‱905 ; for a time, he was better-known than his brother. Competition between the brothers, however, caused F.X. to work at an exhausting pace, while J.C., working at a more disciplined rate, soon outshone his sibling.

In 1900, the brothers set up shop in New York City, and J.C. set out to make a bigger name for himself. “In evaluating how to best promote himself and his work,” the Cutlers write, “Leyendecker believed that his greatest impact as an artist was creating images easily reproduced, immediately recognized and broadly distributed for audiences by the millions to appreciate.” He tried to guarantee that upon seeing his work people would say, “That’s a Leyendecker!”

A big sports fan, J.C. turned out perceptive, action-packed sports vignettes for covers and illustrations. The image of a well-padded “Baseball Catcher” appeared on the cover of The Post in 1909, and a dramatic view of a runner sliding head first into a base as the infielder tags his hand graced the cover of The Popular Magazine in 1910. The large question mark above the two ballplayers reflects its title, “Safe or Out?”

Soon after the turn of the century, J.C. secured the menswear commissions that gained him fame and fortune, notably from Cluett, Peabody & Company. The chiseled, well-dressed, handsome men he created for Cluett’s Arrow Shirts and Collars, 1905‱930, “established the beau ideal for the sartorially savvy American male,” observe folks at the Haggin. The even-featured, elegant gentleman fixing his tie within his Arrow shirt and collar, in “Arrow Collar Study,” 1923, epitomizes the attraction of Leyendecker’s creation. The image became hugely popular among American women, who flooded the company with fan mail, gifts and marriage proposals addressed to the “Arrow Collar Man.”

Before long, the chiseled physiognomies of Leyendecker’s men were helping to sell suits and overcoats for B. Kuppenheimer & Co., as represented by the backside silhouette of the slim man in a fitted black suit, 1918, and the man wearing a homburg and belted coat in “Man and Porter,” 1921. Each is the height of timeless elegance.

Leyendecker’s Adonis-like male managed to make long johns look elegant and comfortable in “Man in Long Underwear,†a 1915 ad for what is now Jockey International, Inc.

His artwork was also employed to promote automobiles, cigarettes, coffee and soap. One of his most spectacular successes was his series showing cherubic infants, winsome children and wholesome adolescents enjoying bowls of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. The smiling all-American teenager lifting his spoonful of corn flakes in “Kellogg’s Kid, Teen Boy,” 1916, epitomizes images that won the hearts of American mothers.

In 1914, the brothers’ successes enabled them to build a 14-room mansion with separate wings for studios and a splendid garden in New Rochelle, N.Y. The suburb of New York City was already home to famed illustrators Frederic Remington and Rockwell. The latter called him “the great J.C. Leyendecker,” and entertained the brothers at dinner. J.C. and Rockwell were friends for more than 25 years.

Their younger sister, Augusta, lived with the brothers, as did the original Arrow Collar model Charles Beach (1886‱952), who had become J.C.’s assistant, business agent and life partner †a relationship that lasted for nearly 50 years. The sprawling house is today the Mount Tom Country Day School.

After the United States entered World War I, Leyendecker joined fellow illustrators Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg and Charles Dana Gibson in making posters to support the nation’s war effort. Leyendecker devoted his efforts to promoting the “Third Liberty Loan Campaign Boy Scouts Of America,” in “Weapons for Liberty,” 1917, in which a stalwart Scout hands a sword inscribed “Be prepared” to a stern figure of Liberty, his head framed by “U*S*A BONDS.” He encouraged enlistment in the US Marine Corps with a poster, “Enlist Today, U.S. Marines, Stockton,” 1918, showing marines on land and sea defending the California coast.

In 1923, after years of mounting tension at the New Rochelle mansion, Augusta and F.X. moved out. The following year Frank died, greatly affecting J.C., but he forged ahead. He lost many of his advertising clients during the Great Depression, but created more than 90 covers for The Post in the decade following the stock market crash of 1929.

By the end of the 1930s, however, the demand for Leyendecker’s imagery had faded. He did his last Post cover soon after the United States entered World War II.

In a style reminiscent of Norman Rockwell’s later Saturday Evening Post covers, the aging mother and eager dog bid a fond welcome to the fashionably-dressed (wearing an Arrow shirt, collar and tie?) young man of the house, in “Welcome Home,†a 1914 Post cover.

His last significant posters, commissioned by Timkin Roller Bearing Company, were a series of patriotic portraits of military leaders to boost purchase of war bonds. Leyendecker responded with sizable, resolute likenesses of craggy-faced “Clair Chennault of the WWII Flying Tigers,” and of square-jawed “Admiral [Harold] Stark.” Both painted in 1944, they epitomized the resolute, determined officers who led the US military in that vast conflict.

J.C. Leyendecker died of a heart attack in his New Rochelle home in 1951, and was interred in an unmarked grave in Woodlawn Cemetery. Rockwell, who by this time had become the premier cover illustrator for The Post , was a pallbearer at the funeral.

After his death, Leyendecker’s paintings were widely distributed among museums and private collections. The Haggin Museum’s director, Earl Rowland, assembled almost 60 original Leyendecker canvases between 1952 and 1959, the largest museum collection of the artist’s work.

That trove forms the basis of this interesting and revelatory traveling exhibition, which exposes new generations to the keen eye, graceful style and impressive brushwork of this undeservedly overlooked master. “J.C. Leyendecker: America’s “Other Illustrator” goes a long way toward securing the artist’s place in the pantheon of the finest of the nation’s illustrators.

The William King Regional Arts Center is at 415 Academy Drive. For information, 276-628-5005 or www.williamkingmuseum.org .