A follow-up to my 2006 article on “Illustrator’s Visions of Santa Claus“, in which I attempted to chronicle how 19th and early 20th century illustrators shaped our contemporary vision of the Jolly One.
(Images above: Thomas Nast, Reginald Birch, J.C. Leyendecker, N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and Haddon Sundblom — with detail)