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.