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.

Maybe Bauhaus

These fantastic photos by the French photographer and designer Serge Lutens probably from the 1980s remind me a lot of the Bauhaus design of the 1920s and 1930s.

Bond Girl

In the US Vogue appeared in May 1999 the editorial "License to Thrill" with Carmen Kass and done by Ellen von Unwerth.

In her typical ironic manner Unwerth is quoting the Bond heroines, here especially the first of all Bond girls Ursula Andress as Honey Rider, in Dr. No (1962).

Nighthawks

This nice photo by the Spanish pohotographer Eugenio Recuenco and published in the Lavazza calendar 2007 is quoting one of the most famous paintings in American art history: "Nighthawks" (1942) by Edward Hopper (1882-1967).