[Advertisement: Bars of Soap]

Ralph Bartholomew Jr.

1936 · Carbro print · Photographs

If mouthwatering soap seems a contradiction in terms, commercial photographer Ralph Bartholomew Jr. confounds the senses with eye candy to rival the confections nearby. Photographed two decades later, this work did not depend on paint for its delectable palette. It is an example of the early carbro process—a complex tricolor printing technique that gained popularity in the 1930s, as art directors courted Depression-era audiences. Brilliant color is essential here, in a photograph likely commissioned to sell not the soap but its packaging. Marketed to producers in an array of trade publications (including Modern Packaging, and the industry-specific standby Soap), fine paper wrappers were a booming industry unto themselves. Here, Bartholomew parades his bedecked bars across a page of newsprint showing stock prices to suggest that in this market, even cleanliness was a commodity.

Artist

Ralph Bartholomew Jr.

Date

1936

Medium

Carbro print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987