JOSEPH C. LEYENDECKER. Young Turkish boy, seated. Pen and ink on paper. 363x279 mm; 14 1/4x11 inches, on tan paper. Unsigned but with "return to Joseph C. Leyendecker" stamp with his New York City address on verso. Upper right corner (marginal area) missing, few small chips along edges, a one-inch clean tear in top margin and another repaired clean tear in margin to right of image. A strong, compelling portrait.
This and the following lot were evidently drawn during class while Leyendecker was studying under John H. Vanderpoel at the Chicago Art Institute in the early 1890s. He had not yet developed his rugged monumental Art Nouveau style that graced many a Saturday Evening Post cover and defined the Arrow Collar Man. After he and his brother, fellow artist Frank X. Leyendecker, moved to New York in 1900, he opened a studio in Bryant Park Studios at 80 West 40th Street.
