Someone in the notes of the last Leyendecker post I reblogged mentioned having difficulty telling his work and Rockwell’s apart, and I know from experience that many people get them confused, which is somewhat astonishing as, to my eyes, their styles are very distinct. Leyendecker was Rockwell’s idol and mentor, but they were very different people and were interested in portraying different aspects of humanity, even when the basic subject matter was the same.
Surface-level, here are some differences:
Leyendecker smoothed out faults and imperfections (in the young. he stylized them in the old); Rockwell exaggerated them to mild or moderate caricature
Leyendecker approached his paintings as sculpture- even the merest clothing folds are carved out of the paint; Rockwell approached his paintings as drawings- the underlying contour always shines through.
Leyendecker used broad hatching brushstrokes and areas of smooth shine; Rockwell used more naturalistic texture and lighting
Leyendecker created idolized, larger-than-life figures that feel Hellenistic in their perfection; Rockwell created intimate scenes populated by figures that feel familiar in their specificity
Leyendecker’s best and most comfortable work was as a fashion/lifestyle illustrator; Rockwell’s best and most comfortable work was as an editorial/humor illustrator
Leyendecker created beautiful still lives with his figures; Rockwell told compelling stories
Leyendecker often created erotic tension in his paintings; Rockwell almost never did.
See below: Two paintings of soldiers with women, but in Rockwell’s there is a clear punchline, and while the poses are contrived for the sake of composition, they’re not self-conscious. The women are pretty- as demanded by the central joke- but not truly sexualized anywhere but in the mind of the young soldier who is being overloaded with cake and attention.
Contrast Leyendecker’s soldiers with a young nurse. Everyone in this image is posing attractively- no one has their mouth full or ears sticking out. Each crease and fold is sharp and sculptural, and the light picks out their best features- in particular the shoulders and posterior of the soldier facing away from the viewer. There is neither joke nor story, merely a group of beautiful young people, portrayed with deft brushwork and graceful lines. (and check out that hatching! That’s indicator #1 that you’ve got a Leyendecker image)
Leyendecker was very comfortable with “hot young things wearing clothes”, and did them very VERY well, but his facility with idealization came at the cost of personalization, which was fine for fashion illustration, but shows in his domestic scenes:
Beautiful, but… cold. (Also, that hand on the left- who holds a baby with their hand like that??? Good lord, J.C.) Compare a Rockwell illustration (for a baby food brand, I believe) of a mother and baby: this is clearly a real and individual young mother and baby, interacting exactly how parents and babies really interact.
Even when they did basically the same content, and putting aside posing or composition or anything other than objective visual analysis, it’s still obvious who is who:
Red: NR’s smoother rendering vs JCL’s super cool hatching
Green: NR’s naturalistic cloth folds vs JCL’s sculptural stylization
Blue: NR’s natural lighting vs JCL’s world where everything is shiny
Now go forth, confident in the knowledge that you’ll never confuse a Rockwell or a Leyendecker ever again, and can refute any claim that their styles are ‘virtually identical’.
Interesting post! I have to agree that their styles are completely different, but I’ve spent a lot of time looking at Leyendecker’s work (which I strongly prefer.) This is a good guide for anyone who isn’t sure about the differences between the artists’ work and would like to learn more.
ok this is “earring magic ken” who was introduced in 1992 (and discontinued shortly thereafter)
basically mattel had done a survey and discovered that girls didn’t think ken was “cool” enough
SO someone had the bright idea to research coolness by sending people to raves which, at the time, were mostly hosted & attended by gay men. so they went to these raves and took notes on what the fashions were and finally landed on this outfit, mesh shirt & all
this doll became the best selling ken doll in history, mostly because gay men bought it in droves. (many of them said his necklace was supposed to be a cockring) but mattel and a number of parents weren’t very amused and discontinued the doll
OH MY GOD YOU’RE LEAVING OUT THE BEST PART
SO
MAGIC EARRING KEN. This bitch gay as HELL. supposedly the aforementioned rings on him are for “magic earrings” and clip on charms. These charms are advertised as totally COMPLETELY heterosexual, not gay at ALL, see there’s a Barbie that also has Magic Earring Action with clip on charms! Ken wears them to match, because he’s STRAIGHT
Here’s the issue: THERE IS NO MATCHING BARBIE. Magic Earring Ken is out here straight up wearing cock rings on his jacket with a thinly devised advertising ploy to make it SEEM not-gay. But it’s DEFINITELY GAY. (And if you’re thinking, why cock rings? Well way back in 1992 gay culture was HUGE on wearing cock rings, it was the in-style. Everyone who was gay wore one, even women; you sewed them to your leather jacket, and the placement indicated some of your sexual preference. In case you were wondering, Ken is a Bottom.)
AND IT GETS BETTER. Magic Earring Ken was on the shelves for six weeks before they pulled him. In that short amount of time? Magic Earring Ken became the BEST SELLING Barbie Doll Mattel has EVER SOLD. LET THAT SINK IN. SIX WEEKS. And now every time these wheezy old hetero windbag execs go to look at their sales board, they’re forever haunted by Magic Earring Ken at the top of their charts.
Gay as hell, Cock Ring Bottom Ken, the Best Selling Mattel Doll. Pride.
I usually think “lol Ken is gay” tropes are boring but this brought new life to it
In an announcement Monday, Fairfax County Police stated that the death of Nabra Hassanen—the teen who was violently beaten by a driver as she and her friends were walking early Sunday morning—will be investigated as a road rage incident and not a hate crime.
Shoulda gone for the dickshots, Megyn. Dickshots are universally funny.
Megyn Kelly’s Alex Jones interview was more uneventful than its actual content previously suggested. Deadline reports that per early ratings reports, 3.5 million people watched the episode of Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, making it the lowest viewership her new Sunday show has received in its short run.
In the Netherlands, abortion is freely available on demand. Yet the Netherlands boasts the lowest abortion rate in the world, about 6 abortions per 1000 women per year, and the complication and death rates for abortion are miniscule. How do they do it? First of all, contraception is widely available and free — it’s covered by the national health insurance plan. Holland also carries out extensive public education on contraception, family planning, and sexuality. An ethic of personal responsibility for one’s sexual activity is strongly promoted. Of course, some people say that teaching kids about sex and contraception will only encourage them to have lots of sex. But Dutch teenagers tend to have less frequent sex, starting at an older age, than American teenagers, and the Dutch teenage pregnancy rate is 9 times lower than in the U.S.
I endorse evidence-based medicine, and evidence-based activism.
When My Brother Was Born In 1985, My Mother Purchased Two Identical Teddy Bears. The One On The Left Has Been My Brother’s For 30 Years, The One On The Right Has Been Kept In Storage For My Brother’s First Child Who Was Born Today
Said Goodbye To By Best Friend After 13 Years. This Is Is Vaccination Tag All Worn Down After A Lifetime Of Tinking Against His Water Bowl. Rip Little Man
Dad Ordered A Vintage, Unused Version Of The Same Shaving Brush He’s Been Using For The Past 30 Years. Here’s The Difference Between The Old And New One
Anyone else worried about the dreaded UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES of this?
If you were really proud of that “punk rock baby” onesie you gave to your friends to celebrate the birth of their new child, you’ve got nothing on one airline that has decided to give a lifetime free travel pass to a baby born mid-flight.
Indian carrier Jet Airways says the newborn will never have to pay for a flight again, after his mother went into premature labor at 35,000 feet on a flight between Saudi Arabia and India, reports the BBC.
Mother and child were taken to a hospital shortly after the flight landed in Mumbai, and both are in good health, the airline says.
“Jet Airways commends its crew for their response and promptness that saw them successfully translate their training into life saving action,” it said in a statement.
The kid will have plenty of options to choose from, notes WGN-TV, as the carrier is one of India’s biggest, with routes to 65 domestic and international destinations.
Though this is the first time a baby has been born on a Jet Airways flight, there have been others born at high altitude: Here in the U.S., Southwest Airlines has hosted has welcomed not one, but two in-flight births in the last few years — though they didn’t receive free airfare for life.
NORRISTOWN, Pa.—Every day in court, they were there—the other women who said, like Andrea Constand, they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby. Victoria Valentino always wore her button, saying “We stand in truth.” Lili Bernard always wore white; on the first day she carried in pink gladiolus. Every day…
look at it look at that weird birb it doesn’t know how to raven
other ravens: caw caw
australian ravens: aUGH AUUuuuGH AAAAUUUUUUughhhhhHHHhhhhhhh
it genuinely didn’t occur to me that this was weird that i’d never heard a crow or raven caw in my life and frnakly the australian raven noise is the most common noise to me and it means “it’s the morning now”. i can’t imagine life without it. its background noise i didn’t even think to identify as coming from somewhere. it’s just There.
quoth the raven, “aUGH AUUuuuGH AAAAUUUUUUughhhhhHHHhhhhhhh”
it sounds like a depressed kazoo.
Wait a minute… how do non-Australian ravens sound? Do they not sound like this?
When I read “Satan as the good guy” texts I of course came across the two main satanic groups Church of Satan and The Satanic Temple.
Neither group actually believes in Satan (or God for that matter) but they both use him as a symbol of defiance.
Church of Satan is of the “Do what you will, there are no rules, but try not to be a dick” mindset, while The Satanic Temple is more of the “Try to make the world a better place, respect other’s freedom, fight back against oppressors” mindset. Both also have a great respect for science.
Church of Satan is responsible for the Satanic Bible and has rituals and black masses as symbolic gestures, while The Satanic Temple mostly just have “rituals” for fun, like their pink mass where gay people kissed over the gravestones of noted homophobic people. The Satanic Temple’s main thing is fighting for women’s right to abortion, protecting children form corporal punishment, gay people’s right to marry and religious freedom.
And if you’re wondering where all the goths went, look no further than the Satanic groups.
it really is wild how nowadays cops can murder black bodies on live social media and the justice system still has the audacity to say “nope! found nothing wrong with that!!”….. all cops can literally wear 5 cameras on their uniforms, kill black a black person for no reason and the courts still wouldn’t count that as a crime…., the reason we are outraged over this is because we don’t matter to them, it doesn’t matter how many people witnessed the murder, or what proof was posted on social media, they don’t give a fuck. they never will.
i’m not gonna sugar code this situation and say that it’s police brutality against “poc”, this is strictly police brutality against BLACK PEOPLE.. a cop can be any damn color but if the victim is black, they can get away with murdering them with their damn eyes closed. the system does this shit on purpose so that cops can get the future “ok” to shoot us up like we’re nothing. I’m tired.
The message is unmistakable: the criminal “justice” system and the majority of everyday, randomly selected white jurors do not give a single shit about Black people. Regardless of whatever they may say or do online, when push comes to shove they’re going to give cops who murder innocent Black people a free pass. And then they have the nerve to ask us to remain peaceful after unjust verdicts are handed down.
Kindness is often mistaken for softness and let me tell you, friends….that is a mistake you don’t want to make.
Kind people are not born that way, they do not stumble into it, kind people are forged in fire and darkness and imploding stars…they have steel cores. Throw a punch and you’re going to break your hand.
Kind people are kind because they know firsthand that life isn’t.
