From purple robes to fur coats to wreath hats to a very thin frame, there have been many features that Americans would hardly attribute to Santa Claus. Drawing on past inspirations, however, illustrator Haddon Sundblom created a version that has stuck for nearly a century.
Sundblom was the youngest of 10 children born to Scandinavian immigrants. At 13, the family moved from Muskegon, Michigan, to Chicago, where he would eventually attend the Art Institute of Chicago and the American Academy of Art. His skill in drawing and painting earned him an apprenticeship at the age of 21 with the prominent Chicago-based illustration firm Charles Everett Johnson Studios. Four years later, he and two colleagues began their own illustration advertising agency.
One of their clients was The Coca-Cola Company. A few years before Sundblom launched his agency, The Coca-Cola Company had started placing a soda-sipping Santa Claus in their Christmas ads. The beverage company, however, wanted Jolly Old St. Nick to come across a little more ... jolly. In 1931, Archie Lee, an advertising executive for Coca-Cola, tapped Sundblom for the job.
The artist, who specialized in the alla prima painting technique (also known as wet-on-wet), took note of past illustrations like those of Civil War-era artist Thomas Nast and 20th century illustrator Norman Rockwell, and read descriptions of St. Nick found in Clement Clarke Moore’s famous poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (more commonly known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”).
Sundblom selected specific features and used them consistently in his paintings to create the Santa we recognize today: plump belly, red cheeks and nose, flowing white beard, red and white outfit, and a jolly smile.
Sundblom didn’t envisage his version of Santa Claus from his imagination; he had the perfect Santa specimen next door. According to Sundblom, his friend and neighbor Lou Prentiss “embodied all the features and spirit of Santa Claus.” For years, Prentiss was the model of Santa Claus. When he passed away, Sundblom used himself as the model.
In one illustration, he painted Santa’s belt backwards, a mistake due to using the mirror reflection. As letters came pouring in noting the error, it proved that people didn’t simply love Sundblom’s paintings, but they pored over them. One year, fans clamored to know what happened to Mrs. Claus when Sundblom left off Santa’s wedding ring.
After more than 40 illustrations, Sundblom painted his last Coca-Cola Santa Claus in 1964.
Regarding the enduring legacy of Sundblom’s Santa, Joanna Berry, professor at Durham University Business School, noted that although “Sundblom didn’t invent Santa as the jolly, white haired rotund old man we all now expect, he certainly did more than anyone to imprint that image onto our minds in relation to Coca-Cola in one of the most enduring brand images ever to have been created.”
But it wasn’t just his Santa Claus paintings. As a master of alla prima oil painting, Sundblom established his name among the great 20th-century artists, and would inspire future painters like Gil Elvgren, Howard Terpning, and Earl Blossom.
“Sundblom gets pigeonholed as the painter of Coca-Cola Santa Clauses, but this trivializes his central place in 20th-century advertising art,” Roger T. Reed, president of the New York gallery Illustration House, once said. “More than any artist including Norman Rockwell, Sundblom defined the American Dream in pictures.”
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