Portrait of a Brunette 

Haddon Sundblom, best known for his advertising work for Coca-Cola, painted this portrait in oil. While undated, the aesthetic qualities of this brunette suggest it was produced in the 1960s. Sundblom was an interesting figure. In one sense, he was a commercial artist, producing work that sustained and affirmed the social norms of consumer culture. At the same time, there is a subtle artistic project at work in his images, in which the genre of portraiture is used to subtly question the ways femininity is consumed. The work bears a resemblance to advertising, and the subject’s coy smile may even seem like she is selling something, but Sundblom's approach is not straightforward. The lack of a product hints at something more nuanced. In order to fully grasp the nature and scope of Sundblom's project, art historians would need to know more about his career, the specifics of his social and professional world, and the critical discourses that would allow us to understand the context for this type of portraiture.