I'm sorry to say that this is one of the worst-produced documentaries I have ever seen--I was really looking forward to watching it. The film begins with a frenetic & clumsy opening montage of seemingly random images by J.C. Leyendecker, arranged without any thought to their date or subject, or how they relate to the accompanying narration. (For example, Leyendecker's design for an 1896 cover of "The Century" magazine appears while the narrator is talking about something else, but is nowhere to be seen when the narrator discusses it.) The music is of the wrong time period, the typography and graphics are weak and inconsistent, and the camera-work is shaky. It's true there was not much biographical information about Leyendecker available when the film was made--more surfaced in 2008 with the publication of the Cutlers' book--but I've read more about him in brief encyclopedia entries than I got from 45 minutes of this movie, which doesn't even tackle some of the points listed in its own website synopsis. There's nothing about the social issues he illustrated; no mention of women's suffrage or Nazi Germany, as promised.
The filmmakers did go to some trouble to hunt up a number of illustration experts to speak on Leyendecker's work, but while a few of them have interesting comments to make, they mostly seem concerned with the unnecessary job of "selling" Leyendecker to the viewer. Yet, although the writers of the film assume the viewer hasn't the slightest idea who Leyendecker is, they presume a general knowledge of 20th-century American illustration. If you're not already familiar with Norman Rockwell's work, for example, you won't see it here, although much of the documentary focuses on the rivalry between Rockwell and Leyendecker. In fact, very little context is given for Leyendecker's career at all--only a very few examples of other illustrators' work is shown, and there's no mention of contemporary art movements, such as Art Deco or Cubism, that likely influenced him. A few of the interview subjects compare his work to that of other artists, but those remarks go unillustrated.
What information there is about Leyendecker's personal life is barely touched upon. His artist brother Frank is almost totally left out, although they studied and shared a studio together, and Frank was an important illustrator in his own right. The filmmakers go out of their way to insist--bizarrely--that there is "no confirmation" of the "stories" about Leyendecker's "private life", without explaining what those stories are. Apparently they don't like the idea that was probably gay.
If you're interested in Leyendecker, I would recommend just searching out internet pages about him, or the few books that exist. It will be a better use of your time. If you really want to get every scrap of information possible, some of the interviews in this documentary might be helpful. But I can't recommend it to the general viewer.
The filmmakers did go to some trouble to hunt up a number of illustration experts to speak on Leyendecker's work, but while a few of them have interesting comments to make, they mostly seem concerned with the unnecessary job of "selling" Leyendecker to the viewer. Yet, although the writers of the film assume the viewer hasn't the slightest idea who Leyendecker is, they presume a general knowledge of 20th-century American illustration. If you're not already familiar with Norman Rockwell's work, for example, you won't see it here, although much of the documentary focuses on the rivalry between Rockwell and Leyendecker. In fact, very little context is given for Leyendecker's career at all--only a very few examples of other illustrators' work is shown, and there's no mention of contemporary art movements, such as Art Deco or Cubism, that likely influenced him. A few of the interview subjects compare his work to that of other artists, but those remarks go unillustrated.
What information there is about Leyendecker's personal life is barely touched upon. His artist brother Frank is almost totally left out, although they studied and shared a studio together, and Frank was an important illustrator in his own right. The filmmakers go out of their way to insist--bizarrely--that there is "no confirmation" of the "stories" about Leyendecker's "private life", without explaining what those stories are. Apparently they don't like the idea that was probably gay.
If you're interested in Leyendecker, I would recommend just searching out internet pages about him, or the few books that exist. It will be a better use of your time. If you really want to get every scrap of information possible, some of the interviews in this documentary might be helpful. But I can't recommend it to the general viewer.
