Search results for: “santa claus”

Even though he is sometimes incorrectly credited with creating the modern visual interpretation of Santa Claus, that doesn’t detract from the beautiful job illustrator Haddon Sundblom did of interpreting the character in his 20th century illustrations for the Coca-Cola Company. The image above is from an exhibition of Sundblom’s Santa Paintings at the Oglethorpe University…

I’ve suggested before that although others preceded him in developing the character of The Jolly One, I think the great American illustrator J.C. Leyendecker is most responsible for the contemporary version of Santa Claus we are familiar with today. For more, see my previous Christmas Eve posts on Leyendecker’s Santas and Illustrators’ Visions of Santa…

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)

The image above (large version here) is one of illustrator Haddon Sundblom’s wonderful paintings of Santa Claus pausing to refresh himself with sponsor Coca-Cola’s sugary carbonated beverage. The now famous paintings were part of an illustrated campaign that ran from 1931 to 1964. Though Coca-Cola’s claims for Sundblom’s role in the creation of the modern…

Over the years, great illustrators have created and shaped the popular vision of Santa Claus. Clockwise from top, left: Thomas Nast, who gave Santa Claus a form almost like the modern idea in the mid-1800’s, with his clay pipe and arm full of toys (including a sword). You can see some of his visions of…