Guest Post: Sophia's Palette

One of the many things I love about vintage Sophia Loren (besides the fact that she's such a babe) is that she's almost always in colourful outfits that perfectly reflect her wonderful character. Her palettes remind me of the work of Gustav Klimt.

Paintings, top to bottom: Houses at Unterach on the Attersee; Ria Munk On Her Deathbed; Fruit Trees; Flower Garden

-- By Miss Moss

Van Gogh tilt-shift

Have you guys ever seen tilt-shift photography? By playing with depth of field, it makes real cities look like miniature models (see examples here and here). Well, Serena Malyon, an art student, used Photoshop to give the same effect to Van Gogh paintings. Aren't these beautiful? See more here.

Painted people

Twenty-four-year-old artist Alexa Meade paints portraits on people. She puts acrylic paint directly on live models, so they appear to be two-dimensional paintings of themselves. These blow my mind!

(Via The Senses Five)

Striped couple

Love these boy and girl prints by Blanca Gomez. They'd look adorable facing each other.

Pre-Raphaelite Knights

These photos by Sean Ellis were published in The Face in august 1998.


Maybe they are not quoting but at least they are strongly influenced by Pre-Raphaelite paintings, for example like this by the English painter Sidney Harold Meteyard (1868-1947)

Home Inspiration: Dog portrait

Isn't this dog portrait awesome? He looks hilariously regal! What a playful and surprising touch in a home.

P.S. Happy Menocal paints pet portraits.
P. P.S. Two more cute portraits.

(Photo from Living Etc, via Design is Mine)

Rhine Daughters

This Advertisement for a Lolita Lempicka fragrance...

is in my opinion more than a little influenced by the Rhine Daughters by the English illustrator Arthur Rackham (1867–1939).

Wednesday Giveaway!

Today's giveaway is from Portland artist Lisa Golightly of Kiki and Polly. She's offering a large print of the Girl in the Yellow Suit. How sweet is that? The print would add a pop of cheery color to any room, from a foyer to a living room to a nursery. (I'd love to hang it above my desk.)

For a chance to win, please visit Kiki and Polly's etsy shop and leave a comment below. Good luck! xo

Update: Parker is our lucky winner. Thanks for playing.

Hommage a Rousseau

These photos by These photos by Max Cardelli are for the Etro collection Fall Winter 2008.
are for the Etro collection Fall Winter 2008.


The whole campaign seems like a pure hommage to the French painter Henri Julien Félix Rousseau, (1844-1910).

Hommage to Roy Lichtenstein

Probably in 2008 published Zinc Magazine an editorial called “masterpiece” by the famous fashion photographer Mike Ruiz.



It’s a hommage to Roy Lichtenstein.

Gilette’s Venus

Gilette’s new campaign for female razors utilizes the old image of Venus the goddess of love and beauty.

Although there are a lot of artistic interpretations of this subject, I prefer Botticelli because of the wind and because it’s the best known.

Crucifixion

This photo was published by Harper's Bazaar China September 2008 in celebration of the Olympic Games.

It’s a quotation of the painting by Salvador Dalí Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951).

Medea

Despite it happens frequently that older (and lesser known) art is used as an inspiration in advertising without any reference or quoting, there are also many a modern photographer who are paying their respects to art history.

So did for example the british digital artist Rebecca Parker with her photo Medea:

It’s a well arranged quotation of the famous artwork from 1898 by the Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860 –1939).

There you find more examples about Medea in art.

Beer Surfer

Few days ago a friend showed me this nice clip on Youtube about the Guinness Surfers.

A wonderful clip without any doubt by I wished that the English painter Walter Crane (1845-1915) would have been mentioned.

Walter Crane: Neptune's Horses (1892)

Pandora

The photos for the Versace Catalogue Winter 1998 where made by Steven Meisel. All are dealing in a mysterious manner with mythological subjects. It’s not mentioned what characters Meisel had in mind when he arranged his photos. But this one reminds a lot of Pandora.

Pandora the curious girl with his box who brings all the evils to mankind as can be seen on this painting from 1894 by the British artist Henrietta Rae (1859-1928).

Fashionable Pin-Ups

Pin-ups had become fashionable. Since years photographers and designers discovered the nostalgic charm of that once despised artwork.

A very beautiful series was made by the photographer Bruno Dayan for Chantal Thomass.



Probably Dayan didn’t think in a special painter when he made his photos. But he wanted to imitate not only the costumes and poses but also the colors and the artificial surface.

It sounds good to me (1942) by David Wright (1912–1967)

Sleepy-Time Girl (1930s) by Gil Elvgren (1914-1980)

Ophelia

In the Dazed & Confused magazine appeared in December 2007 this Ophelia by the fashion photographer Mariano Vivanco.

I don’t think that Vivanco had a special painting in mind when he took this photo. But since the 19th century Ophelia is a popular icon in art. And because of this the images will resemble the most times as this painting may illustrate:

Ophelia (1876) by the French painter Antoine Auguste Ernest Hebert(1817-1908).

Meisel - Tissot

In the May 2007 issue of American Vogue appeared a series by the fphotographer Steven Meisel called "Fashioning the Century".

This is one of the very well composed pictures (how Meisel used to do).


It reminds me of the painting "Lilacs" (c. 1875) by the French painter James Jacques Tissot (1836-1902). Maybe this wasn’t intended by Meisel. But anyway, it’s not only the similar pose and the flowers, it’s the same cool arrangement of luxury, the perfection of both pictures.