The Courtship, Success Magazine Cover, 1905 1905

Curator: Here we have J.C. Leyendecker’s "The Courtship," a magazine cover from 1905, rendered in oil paint. What captures your attention first about this image? Editor: It's the lady's unease; her almost defensive posture despite the man's clear intentions. There's a tension, a societal expectation about to be either met or defied. The dark mole on her cheek is very prominent! Curator: Absolutely, there's a powerful undercurrent to this seemingly polite scene. It's interesting how Leyendecker uses clothing as a visual language – the billowing folds of her dress almost creating a barrier. Did you notice how his hand is placed on the chair so proprietarily? Editor: Yes, exactly! That confident hand placement versus her tightly clasped fingers reveals so much. And those ridiculously foofy clothes-- the wig! All such powerful status symbols of the period. You wonder what power dynamic she actually has in the relationship beyond surface appearances. Curator: It’s fascinating to consider how the symbols have shifted too. In its day, this image was selling an aspirational lifestyle through Success Magazine, but viewing it now, over a century later, the image feels almost like a critique of the constraints of that era. Editor: Indeed. Mistletoe above, a plant redolent of tradition and sanctioned affection, contrasts the underlying disquiet. Also note the very deliberate, directional brushstrokes give an airy lightness; yet there's that stark black choker—a chic yet also constricting detail. Curator: Leyendecker had such a masterful hand, creating not just portraits but stories within these illustrations. You know he had this signature style. You can totally see this as something very much in vogue for covers from the turn of the last century. Editor: The beauty is in the quiet story it holds, those conflicting symbols whispering about societal expectations and female agency or lack thereof. Art can change meaning as the decades march past us! Curator: Absolutely, and Leyendecker, even when crafting what appears on the surface to be simple advertisement illustrations, often injected that tension, making even a magazine cover into something worth pondering, worth seeing the complexities, of even in 1905.