The Obese Gazes Also

by Christopher Bahn
February 26th, 2008

This has been floating around the blogs lately, and because I think it's funny I pass it along to you: Homer Simpson in the style of Rembrandt van Rijn. (I first saw it here.) Specifically, I think, it plays off of this self-portrait. I don't know much else about the artist, whose website doesn't have any biographical information I can easily find, and y'know, if it's not easy to find then the hell with it, as they taught me in journalism school, or would have taught me if I'd been listening, or had actually gone to journalism school. Also on that site, Marge Simpson as a Vermeer and Groundskeeper Willie as a Van Gogh. Here's the real Rembrandt, for comparison:

I led with the Homer painting in part so I could justify using my Nietzsche pun in the headline, but in the interest of doing slightly more than just reposting a viral link, here's a few more pop-culture/high-art crossovers: • Isabel Samaras blends Renaissance-era art with characters from The Addams Family and Universal Studios monster movies.

• Painter Brandon Bird captures Christopher Walken's robot-building hobby, Noam Chomsky's sweet ride and other surreal scenes.

• French impressionist Claude Monet was well known for his series of paintings of haystacks, but fewer known of his paintings of haystacks and Sleestaks.