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#TussenKunstEnQuarantaine

Welcome to one of the most awesome things we did during the, first, horrible, COVID19 period. Everybody was forced to be at home and we can’t live without art. People need, art, music and love to survive. When a museum, can’t remember which one though, started challenging people to imitate art we saw a chance. In the end we decided to quit at 40 pieces. The original meaning of Quarantaine means “40” (quarant) anyway.

We figured we needed to do something that stirred emotions. We chose to do only duo portraits so we could always be doing the art together. 40 times in a row is a big challenge. At the time we were in my small apartment without much space. It required us to make the most out of it using a creative approach. We think it worked. By popular request we collected all works and descriptions here, please enjoy!

Want to see it on Twitter? Sure, please visit this search result. It’ll take you to all the works.

We’ll show you the original and the result with some comments.

René Magritte – Les Amants / The Lovers (1928)
For the first try we needed something simple, but powerful image
Marius van Dokkum – Knuffel / Hug (2003)
Marius makes life worth living. It speaks love from every angle
John William Waterhouse – La Belle Dame sans Merci / Beautiful lady without mercy (1893)
Things started to evolve from here with a more complex setup of the scene. It makes choosing an artwork easier if you feel more comfortable setting up with more attributes
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – Dans le Lit, le Baiser / In Bed, the Kiss (1892)
Basic stuff, this one will return though …
Joseph Lorusso – Lovers & Lautrec
See what we did here? This was next level if you ask me
Frans Hals – Portret van een stel / Portrait of a couple, probably Isaac Abrahamsz Massa en Beatrix van der Laen (ca. 1622)
Remember when everybody was stacking up toiletpaper? Yeah …
Haddon Sundblom – The Unpossessed (c.1947)
It started getting harder to find paintings or art with couples on it. Finding that was probably the biggest part of the challenge
Terentius Neo e la moglie (ca 55-79), Fresco of a baker and his wife, Pompeii
Probably the oldest one we did. We all know what happened in ’79 in Pompeii of course
Pablo Picasso – The Lovers (1923)
It’s probably harder imitating more modern art than old school masters, but also more challenging
Grant Wood – American Gothic (1930)
Every kid in America does this at least once for Halloween, right? Facial expressions make this one
Eric Koch – John & Yoko, Amsterdam (25 March 1969)
My personal favourite. This was really epic to make. We had to drag the bed into another room, but it was 100% worth it. There are a lot of details in this one. The Google speaker for one
Jean Honoré Fragonard – The Stolen Kiss (1780s)
Lot’s of kissing going on of course. People should kiss more we figured
Quinten Matsys – De goudwisselaar en zijn vrouw / The money lender and his wife (1514)
This got a retweet from the musuem, the Louvre, fyi, and thus had so much likes. That was absolutely fantastic
Alexander Sharpe Ross – How Sure Can You Be? (1950)
This was an illustration for a magazine and the hardest part here was getting a grip on perspective (read: tripods on tables)
Christoffel Bisschop – De Kus (1865 – 1900)
We had a window and a balcony. That was enough
Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema – Ask me no more (1906)
A lot of our props were just blankets and sheets. Not too mention insane amounts of safety needles and paper clips
‘Master of Frankfurt’ (possibly by Hendrik van Wueluwe) – The painter and his wife (1496)
We did a little Photoshop here, I’ll admit that, but the frame is actually setup on tables and whatnot. We just erased the outside corners for this
Henry Peters Gray – The Greek Lovers (1846)
The hat is a funny story. It’s a tea towel and a bunch of paper clips. There you go, it’s my funny hat, you could say
Georges de La Tour – Peasant Couple Eating Peas / Couple mangeant des pois / Erbsen essendes Bauernpaar (ca 1620s)
Capturing an image is one, capturing the mood and feel is another
Jacques-Louis David – L’amour d’Hélène et Paris (détail) (1788)
Again, from the Louvre it received a lot of positive feedback. We tried to avoid repeating the same museums, but it doesn’t always work out
Carolus-Duran (Charles Auguste Émile Durand) – Le Baiser / The Kiss (1868)
This one almost was on display in a real museum! We couldn’t agree on the (C) though unfortunately #TrueStory
Jan Steen – Paar in een hemelbed / Couple in a four poster bed (between 1665 & 1675 )
We usually are a little more organised then a Jan Steen painting, but it was fun to spread around a bit of chaos and chaos
Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen painting a portrait of his wife Anna (ca 1550)
A picture of a man painting a painting of his wife. Paint-ception as it were. There is underwear hidden in plain sight for this one
Alexander Ivanov – Christ’s Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection / Явление Христа Марии Магдалене после Воскресения (1835)
Of course you have to go with the season, this was made for Easter
Robert James Gordon – A Musical Duet (between 1871-1894)
It so happens we just finished a 3D print of a flute. It sounded crap, but the scene is nice
Willem Bastiaan Tholen – Jhr. & Mevrouw Quarles Van Ufford-Arntzenius (1925)
The original of this hangs in our local museum de Fundatie in Zwolle. It’s something to play old persons
Judith Leyster – Man die een vrouw geld aanbiedt / Man offering money to a woman (1631)
Love cannot be bought, they knew that even back in the 17th century
Gerard ter Borch – Een theorbe-luitspelende vrouw en een cavalier / A woman playing the theorbo-lute and a cavalier (1658)
We didn’t have a theorbo-lute because of reasons, but you got to work with what you have
Johannes Vermeer – Het glas wijn / The glass of wine (1658-1660)
We did finish the wine though, in case you were wondering
Rogelio De Egusquiza – Tristan & Isolde. Death (1910)
Posing with eyes closed is very difficult. Everybody got out alive though
Émile Friant – Les Amoureux / The Lovers (1888)
We were dreading going out to find a bridge, but the view from the 6th floor worked fine
Pierre August Renoir – Danse à la campagne (1883)
Get out the sheets and a very old suit. And the fan of course! It’s amazing what people keep in their old storage boxes
Peter Paul Rubens – Pastorale Scene (1636-1638)
We are definitely not afraid of some more explicit paintings, but Twitter is, so there you go
Frida Kahlo – Frieda et Diego Rivera (1931)
There are many stories about Frida and her lovers. We weren’t really impressed with them, but her style is very recognizable
Francesco Hayez – El Beso / The Kiss (1859)
Simple and elegant. The stairs were made out of books. You are what you read, they say
Piero della Francesca – Doppio ritratto dei duchi di Urbino; Battista Sforza e Federico da Montefeltro (ca 1465)
This modern take in old Italian art is because of the fact Mr. Sforza badly burned one side of his face and being Italian, well …
André Victor Edouard Devambez – Pierre et Valentine (ca 1920)
Sometimes it can be really quick, but a simple image usually comes with a need for much details to match
Lord Frederic Leighton – Wedded (1882)
Portals, doors, all the same. Lots of fabrics involved in this one
Hans von Aachen – Paar im Wirtshaus (ca 1596)
Don’t worry, all the body parts are where they are supposed to be
Charley Toorop – Twee kinderen / Two children (1915)
We couldn’t find any more love, kiss, couple or related content so it’s a portrait as we are closing up after forty (!) days of non-stop creativity. Thanks for watching!

And that’s all folks! We enjoyed making this so much and are thankful for all the fun and loving reaction we gathered in these troubled times. We hope to bring, once again, a smile to your face and keep you interested in the beautiful things humanity has brought us. Peace out!