DECADES BEFORE TOM of Finland sketched idealized drawings of men in lust, illustrator J.C. Leyendecker turned his appreciation for the male form into cash cows for corporations, using muscled, half-dressed men to sell soap, magazines, and detachable collars. Viewed from a 21st-century lens, Leyendecker’s covers for the Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s, and advertising images for men’s clothing, don’t have a gay subtext; they’re just gay. But while the German-born, Chicago-raised Leyendecker practically shouts of his love for men in his art — many of his works were modeled on his longtime partner, Charles Beach — the homoeroticism was subtly absorbed by American consumers. Subversively, Leyendecker’s illustrations, appearing on billboards, store windows, and mass transit, helped shape the aesthetic of the early 20th century, before the culture gravitated to the…
