Joseph Christian Leyendecker (American, 1874-1951) New Year's Baby (Beginning to Rain), The Saturday Evening Post cover, December 31, 1927 Oil on canvas 28 x 21 inches (71.1 x 53.3 cm) Signed with artist's monogram lower right: JCL PROVENANCE: Sotheby's, New York, November 28, 2001, lot 170; Heritage Auctions, Dallas, October 2013, 2012, lot 78077; The Illustrated Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2020. EXHIBITED: M.S. Rau Antiques, New Orleans, Louisiana, "America, Illustrated: Six Decades of Saturday Evening Post Covers," November 6, 2015-January 5, 2016 (as Beginning to Rain). LITERATURE: The Saturday Evening Post, December 31, 1927, cover; J. Cohn, Covers of "The Saturday Evening Post:" Seventy Years of Outstanding Illustration from America's Favorite Magazine, New York, 1995, p. 121, illustrated; L.S. Cutler, J.G. Cutler, J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist, New York, 2008, p. 146, illustrated. With his celebrated New Year's Babies, Leyendecker transformed a familiar holiday symbol into a witty observer of American life. As Jeff Nilsson writes, "From 1907 to 1943, J.C. Leyendecker's Baby New Year covers told the history of a nation" ("New Year's Babies," The Saturday Evening Post, December 31, 2014). In Beginning to Rain, published on December 31, 1927, to welcome 1928, the infant sits atop an ark, anticipating a change in the weather—and, symbolically, the possible repeal of Prohibition. The prospect of a "wet" new year gives this charming image its sly topical humor, capturing the country's hopes for change through Leyendecker's enduring emblem of renewal. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

M.S. Rau Antiques, New Orleans, Louisiana, "America, Illustrated: Six Decades of Saturday Evening Post Covers," November 6, 2015-January 5, 2016 (as Beginning to Rain).

Sotheby's, New York, November 28, 2001, lot 170; Heritage Auctions, Dallas, October 2013, 2012, lot 78077; The Illustrated Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2020.

Unlined, retains original stretcher. Frame abrasion and stretcher bar marks along extreme outer edges. Isolated areas of surface cracking. Under UV: Fine lines, pindots, and isolated small spots of inpaint throughout the composition. Although some pigments read strongly, primarily throughout the white background, they appear to be the artist’s original.
Framed Dimensions 33.25 X 26 Inches