Student Responses: Veronica Lake

This column is part of an occasional series in which Washington-area university students discuss works on display in the National Portrait Gallery.

This article is written by Maria B. Havrilla, a freshman at Catholic University of America. She writes about this 1940s “stand-up” poster of actress Veronica Lake—an advertisement for “Woodbury Matched Make-up” that was designed for drugstore windows. The poster is on display in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition “Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture,” on the museum’s second floor. 

My visit to the National Portrait Gallery was for a school project; I was instructed to choose a portrait I felt was significant and to discuss that portrait. Browsing through the Portrait Gallery, I found what I thought was the perfect portrait: the 1945 “Woodbury Matched Make-up” ad featuring Veronica Lake. Lake seems to display a calm seductiveness that is still sought-after in today’s commercial media. She broke some boundaries with her portrait, yet she still characterizes women of both yesterday and today.

Lake is the epitome of beauty and grace in this portrait; she draws the viewer in with her seductive and secretive stare. Her dress further hints at her sex appeal, and her complexion is flawless. Her looks are those of a good hometown girl with a flirtatious love of pushing the limits, while the blond locks framing her face give the illusion that her look is effortless. Veronica Lake depicts the ever-evolving modern woman.

Throughout history, portraits and paintings of women reflect the times. Portraits also bear some influence on the future. Women in such images as the Mona Lisa are shown to be worthy of attention and affection as well as admiration; they should not just be seen as mothers and wives. Something similar can be said for Veronica Lake; she made history by letting her hair fall about her face and by daring to show her pretty skin.

This image, from the period just after World War II, is a picture of a classic beauty who is showing her sensuous side, something not typical or always accepted for that day. Taking the standards of beauty and grace to another level, she says to the viewer that women should be confident and prepared to step out of tradition and into a bold new sensuality. Veronica Lake was an icon of her time and continues to be a legendary icon for breaking the norm, pushing women to become more interested in non-traditional roles in society.

“Woodbury Matched Make-Up” /Veronica Lake/Unidentified artist, c. 1945/Color photolithographic halftone poster stand-up/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Comments

[Nan Huidekoper]

The Ballyhoo poster exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery is not to be missed. The posters that decorate our environs are designed to make such a visual impact as to capture our attention and translate immediately their mission. Posters are often seen in multiples as we pass them in our daily lives. Like subliminal messages, their images repeat in our minds and become integrated into our thoughts and the collective consciousness. Indeed, I could not get the Ballyhoo exhibit out of me mind and fell asleep with visions of all the dramatic, colorful posters a the National Portrait Gallery before me in my dreams.
Ranging in time from the nineteenth centure to the present, the Ballyhoo exhibit features poster portraits of Judy Garland and cabaret singers whose songs touched my heart and filled my dreams. Posters of General Pershing and Jimmy Doolittle spoke of our struggles as a nation. Posters of "Buffalo Bill" Cody and his Wild West Show brought back times of Western expansion and cowboy skill. Charlie Chaplin reached out to me with his wit and charm. I dreamed of having hair like Veronica Lake's and wish I could still find products by Woodbury. I saw Pete Sampras' smile under a milky lip and remembered the find American tennis champion. Marlon Brando confronted danger in a poster for "On the Waterfront", and I remembered what a powerful actor he was. Our political and social history was exemplified with posters and portraits of Barry Goldwater and labor leader, Lane Kirkland. Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Carribbean" dress, beckoned me to the lure of the open sea. Lance Armstrong's portrait in profile took me to the "Tour de France" and his many triumphs there. In my dreams, he rode off with a beckoning wave to the future. How many more amazing posters will be created to publicize or persuade with the alternate effect of reflecting the time we live in?
The National Portrait Gallery's Ballyhoo exhibit also describes the personal histories of the people portrayed in its posters. It is as educational an exhibit as it is pleasing to the eye and the imagination. It is the stuff of which dreams and memories are made.