Michelle Pfeiffer by torgar, inspired by William Bouguereau’s Boucles d’Oreilles (The earrings, 1891). Click for 624px × 989px image.

This stunning portrait of American actress Michelle Pfeiffer was one of the entries in the 11th edition of the Modern Renaissance contest on Worth1000, in July 2009. The challenge: If the renaissance took place in modern times, and the models were famous pop culture celebrities, what would the artwork have looked like?

The contest drew 89 entries, five of which were remastered Bouguereaus. Michelle Pfeiffer by torgar was the highest scorer among them. Below you can find four of those five modern Bouguereaus:

From left to right: Michelle Pfeiffer, Marylin Monroe, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant. Click each to visit the galleries where you can find many more contemporary versions of the original paintings.

Pamela Bouguereau by Serge Birault. Click for full view.

French digital artist Serge Birault (website) loves to create illusions of fairies and princesses, without falling into the trap of the stereotypes and clichés of the genre. The image shown above is an experiment, for which William Bouguereau’s 1879 self-portrait provided the inspiration. In Birault’s own words:

As I was trying a new palete of skin tones inspired by William Bouguereau, I decided to make a feminine version of his autoportrait (yes, I know, I’m dispairing ^^). So I had transformed this poor William in a mature bimbo (I’m a pin up drawer after all :D).

He also provides insight in the way this portrait was created:

Below you can compare the 1879 William and 2009 Pamela. (Interesting detail: even the signatures are in the same style!) Click to visit the gallery where you will find more remastered versions of the same painting.

Detail of Happy Birthday Bouguereau by Mandrak, based on William Bouguereau’s Daisies. Click for full image.

In June 2009, Worth1000 organized the second edition of their popular Party Ren contest. The competition drew 25 works of art in party mood, including three remastered Bouguereaus. The gold winner was Happy Birthday Bouguereau by Brazilian digital artist Mandrak, based on Bouguereau’s 1894 work Paquerettes (Daisies). Below are all three Bouguereau-inspired entries. Click each to visit the galleries where you find many more contemporary versions of the original paintings.

For Bouguereau by Phatpuppy, based on Bouguereau’s Childhood Idyll. Click for bigger.

This remastered version of William Bouguereau’s 1900 work Idylle Enfantine (A Childhood Idyll) was created by Californian digital artist Claudia Bartoli McKinney (facebook), publishing as phatpuppy on deviantArt. The dramatic backdrop consists of stock photos and pictures taken by Claudia herself. In her own words:

Me and my dear sister both share a love of Bouguereau - so I made this in his honor and I hope you like it. I used his painting of the two girls - but I composed the entire background from sxc.hu images and my own pictures taken at Casper National Park. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to use Bouguereau - but it is not copyright protected and free to use…wow…who knew?

Below is the original Bouguereau painting. Click to open the gallery where you will find many more contemporary versions.

Detail of Moments in love by Esstera, inspired by Amour a l’affut by Bouguereau. Click for full image.

Digital artist Magdalena from Croatia, operating as esstera on DeviantArt, marries modern photography and classic art in beautiful ways. Her motto in this endeavor is Beauty has as many meanings as man has moods.

In her work Moments In Love, Magdalena incorporated the cupid figure from Bouguereau’s 1890 work Amour a l’affut (Love on the Look Out). Below you can see both works in full. Click the first to see the image in its original context on deviantArt, the second to access the gallery on Bouguereau Remastered where you can discover many more contemporary versions of the original painting.

From the same artist on Bouguereau Remastered: A Heavenly Kiss From Bouguereau

Detail of Billy Bouguereau by Hamid1976, inspired by Bouguereau’s The Virgin With Angels. Click for full picture.

What did William Bouguereau draw or paint when he was still a 10-year old kid? We may never know, but it might have looked like the picture above. This digital image, entitled Billy Bouguereau, was created by Hamid1976 for the Children’s Art contest on FreakingNews in May 2009. The drawing is based on Bouguereau’s 1900 work The Virgin With Angels, and follows the original painting very closely, as you can see from these thumbnails:

Even the signatures are exactly in the same place:

Click the first to view the contest entry on FreakingNews, the second to visit a gallery where you can find many more remastered versions of the original Bouguereau painting.

For a complete overview of Hamid Reza Irani’s work, visit his website here.

Detail of Nymphs and Artist by imagesbyalex, based on Nymphs and Satyr by Bouguereau. Click for full picture

City of Heroes (wiki) is a popular online role-playing game. Digital artist Alex Dai (website, deviantArt) used characters from the game in this remastered version of Nymphs and Satyr by William Bouguereau.

In his own words:

Entry for City of Heroes contest to recreate a piece of art with City of Heroes characters and themes.
I chose William Bouguereau’s Nymphes et Satyre.
With so many choices to pick from it took a while to settle on this piece, but I feel it captures the allure of the game and how it sometimes pulls me away from my art, luckily it also inspires me to create art as well.
These lovely nymphs are my characters, going clockwise, PyroMindi, Sapphire Rayne, Radioactive Ruby and Anna Freeze.
Background is a screenshot from the game of Atlas Park

Below you can compare the full remastered version with the original. Click the first to access the image on deviantArt, the second to visit a gallery where you can find many more contemporary versions of the same painting.

Detail of Manifesto of a Well Lived Life by Sean Spriggs. Click for full king-size view (4845×761)

Los Angeles based digital artist Sean Spriggs [website], operating as keeperstride on deviantArt, created a nine-panel wide artwork, mostly based on Bouguereau paintings. The title is Manifesto of a Well Lived Life, representing Spriggs’ ideas about “what I believe to be a good life, at least for myself“. The superimposed slogans are mostly provocative, such as “be naked for as much as possible” and “try drugs at least once“.

Here is a thumbnail of the complete artwork. Click to access the gallery on deviantArt.

Below are the original Bouguereau paintings on which eight of the nine works are based. Click each to visit the galleries where you can find many more contemporary versions of the same Bouguereau originals.

Detail of Bambi and Bouguereau by funkwood, inspired by Bouguereau’s Les Prunes (Plums, 1896). Click for full picture.

This sweet picture was one of the many Remastered Bouguereaus in the third Cartoon Ren contest on Worth1000, in May 2009. It was created by digital artist funkwood. All contest entries (43 of them) used an old painting, swapping in a cartoon character for the original subject. There were seven entries based on original Bouguereau paintings. Below are all of them. Click each to visit the galleries where you can find many more remastered versions of the classic works.

Detail of Cruz in the Villa by AZRainman, based on Italian Girl Drawing Water by Bouguereau. Click for full picture

In May 2009, actress Penelope Cruz celebrated her 35th birthday. Cruz is the only Spanish female actress who received an Academy Award; she got it as Best Supporting Actress in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”. To mark her birthday, FreakingNews invited digital artists to photoshop her any way they wish.

The Penelope Cruz contest drew 28 entries. The only Remastered Bouguereau was Cruz in the Villa by AZRainman. It was also the first-prize winner. His entry was based on Bouguereau’s 1871 work Jeune Italienne puisant de l’eau (Italian Girl Drawing Water). Below you can compare the original painting and the contemporary version. Click each to visit the gallery where you can find many more remastered versions of the same painting, featuring famous people such as Jennifer Aniston, Cher, Natalie Portman, Alissa Milano and Monica Bellucci.