Officer and Laughing Girl

A few weeks ago I saw a challenge by the Getty Museum in California to recreate works of art with 3 pieces one had around the house.   I thought that’d be fun but got distracted…apparently this homemade quarantine art originated with a Dutch Instagram Account before the Getty took it on.  According to this article from the PBS News Hour sent to me by blipper Tookie, there are at least 30,000 submissions.  Check it out for lots of fun examples.    A lot of people are turning to ART for solace.   and so many museums have online tours……and you can learn a lot.

So I got reinspired.   We have always loved Vermeer and have sought out many of the approx 32 surviving paintings in the world.  Picked one with a man and a woman.  H was a good sport (he had no choice)  Officer and Laughing Girl is one of 3 Vermeers at the Frick in NYC, a favorite museum of ours. (there are 5 more at the metropolitan!)   It’s all about that light.  We have great morning light thru this window which happens to have my leaded glass on it.   So Voila!  We just needed some costumes and props.   I’m sure there is no compositing in this challenge.  (Or I would have made the map bigger)  but I did fiddle with the lighting and texture.
And it has been speculated that Vermeer used a camera obscura in 1657 to get this perspective which my camera did okay, but I needed a higher ceiling, I think.   (look large)

Wouldn’t it be fun for blippers to do this challenge??
Edit:   I just learned there IS one called “remake a Master”.  Terrific!  Thank
You to blipper Feather!!

Just recording the details for me or anyone who might be interested.  You can see more large.   The Officers coat is red but I rather liked my magenta one… the black strap (from my computer carry case) signifies his rank.  His beaver pelt hat (from the new world …this painting is 1657!)  is a straw hat, biggest we had, with some black felt wrapped around the brim and a velvet hat on top tied with a tie. The ruff in his sleeve is paper towel.    The only gold color I had to wear was this rowing jacket and the scarf is a wool Mexican rebozo which I tried (not too successfully) to also stuff into the top of my “dress”.  Sorry you can’t see the laughing.
We decided to definitely go with the quarantine theme with our homemade masks, gloves and lysol spray.   Couldn’t find a map that included Amsterdam so used this part of Europe with Italy. Our whole family is scheduled to go on a trip there in August which hasn’t been cancelled yet but surely can’t happen. Sigh.

But this was so much FUN!!