Sunday, April 12, 2009

Tess, Grace, and Matthew's Homage to the Masters

I knew when I visited my dear friend and fellow Pre-Raphaelite afficionado, Tess, a couple of weekends ago, that it would spurn numerous blog posts here. And sure enough, here is another one!

On Saturday night, Tess and I stayed up till 5am taking photos inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite masters. The lighting wasn't the keenest, but the poses are, of course, classic. Those Victorian guys really knew what they were doing when it came to dramatic poses.

But after a while, we started to giggle to each other, because as I was giving her direction in her posing, (holding a print-out of the artwork we were trying to duplicate and staring at the hands and pose) I finally just started saying "hold yourself in the most awkward, unnatural and uncomfortable way you can imagine. Yes...just like that. Now hold that pose!" The Pre-Raphaelites knew what poses were dramatic and romantic, but I have a whole new appreciation for the models themselves. After about a minute in a given pose, we'd have to take a break to shake out cramped necks and hands.

As I always say, feel free to click on the below images to see them larger!


The first pose of Tess and me, adjusted some for our varying heights, was based on The Crystal Gazers by Mowbray


The second pose was inspired indirectly (no attempt to directly reproduce a pose) by Jane Morris portraits by Rossetti like this one:


The next pose was inspired by Dicksee's artwork, The Magic Crystal:

The portraits of Tess and Matthew together were inspired indirectly again (no attempt at exact pose) by paintings like this one by Rossetti:


And last, we recreated Burne-Jones famous artwork, Love Among the Ruins:

6 comments:

Castles Crowns and Cottages said...

WOW. You are my kind of person! Those poses are beautiful. What a fun hobby you have. Costumes, friends, living the life of the portraits...I could think of worst things to do. You are a master artist, Grace! Isn't fun to stay up late and play? Have a marvelous Sunday! Anita

Belle-Etoile said...

Oh, I love this one! My favoiret of the bunch. ^^ http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2vmccxEWU_A/SeH9kemWVXI/AAAAAAAABFs/oLAmSSu_HZU/s1600-h/leaninglovers.jpg

Linden Sidhe said...

I do love looking at these over and over! I think there was a throned Tess I liked better, though. Glad to see these here. You are awesome as always.

KeKe said...

They're all beautiful!

Grace said...

Thank you, Anita! I have such a passion for these things, it's hard to imagine NOT following them as hobbies :)

Belle-Etoile, I love that one too. My mom pointed out that their hands form a circle.

Linden Sidhe, <3

And thank you Sophia!

bob klein said...

The headboard is fabulous. I am guessing Cincinnati origin?