Nighthawks

This photo is part of the 2007 Lavazza Calendar and shot by the Spanish photographer Eugenio Recuenco. It shows a kind of super heroine but it’s also a quotation of the famous painting Nighthawks (1942) by Edward Hopper.

Venus and Cupid

This photo by the Italian artist Gian Paolo Tomasi integrates typical elements of classical paintings.

First there is Cupid how he could be seen on many paintings from the baroque onwards till late 19th century art.

And there is the women looking like one of that odalisques on the popular 19th century harem paintings like this by the French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904).

Waterbabies

This stunning mermaid is by the British photographer Zena Holloway, who is famous for her underwater creations. Still I’m thinking that you cannot make photos of mermaids without quoting late 19th century paintings like for example that of the British artist John Collier

The Birth of Venus

The spectacular advert for the new fragrance Alien by Thierry Mugler shows a siren or a goddess in gold. But in my humble opinion it’s mainly influenced by paintings showing the birth of Venus, the best know that by Sandro Botticelli to be seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence

A Tribute to Klimt

Dior's 2008/2009 spring/summer haute couture collection by John Galliano was more than influenced by the art of a certain painter, it was a pure tribute to the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862–1918).

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)

Hommage a Frida Kahlo

These nice photos by Chris Nicholls (an advertising for wedding gowns) are dedicated to Frida Kahlo.

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).

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).

Sexy Pirates

For the Winter campaign 2008 of Agent Provocateur posed Helena Christensen as a sexy pirate.



I don’t think that there is a reference to any particular pirate painting. But the whole series seems to be inspired by the pirate pin ups of the thirties.

Mermaids

In his editorial in the May 2008 issue of US Vogue Craig McDean presented also a Mermaid.

This photograph is not a quotation of any special mermaid painting. But it’s an ironic interpretation of the stories which are spun around that old legend.

Compared for example with the pretentious painting "A Mermaid" (1901) by John William Waterhouse it’s obvious that McDean’s interpretation is anything but serious.

La Belle Epoque

The Italian Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) was one of the and most successful portraitist of the Belle Epoque and one of his best known paintings is the "Marchesa Luisa Casati, with a Greyhound" (1908).

And because John Galliano is a great admirer of Boldini and especially of this painting he ordered that the campaign for his new perfume should be a reference to the Marchesa Casati and the spirit of the Belle Epoque.

Oriental Dreams

In the Vogue Italy appeared in May 2009 this great editorial by Steven Meisel. The Russian model Sasha Pivovarova presented John Galliano’s Spring/Summer collection.


With his photos Meisel refers not only to oriental fashion but rather to oriental paintings of the 19th and early 20th century and above all the famous odalisques by Henri Matisse (1869- 1954).

Pocahontas

Annie Leibovitz is well known for her "Disney Dream Portrait Series" where different stars are posing as Disney fantasy heroines. Here it’s Jessica Biel as Pocahontas with the title "Where Dreams Run Free".

To me it’s not only a simple quotation of the Disney movie, it matches much more the pretension of Leibovitz to tell stories, to be narrative. There’s not only a model running trough the woods, it’s a whole legend, which is told.