Detail of Violina by Marcelo Halmenschlager. Click for full image (1464px × 1836px).

Brazilan-born Marcelo Halmenschlager [website] yearned for a career in medicine but ended up studying psychology. Feeling isolated and tormented by depression, he discovered his passion for painting, as therapy. Fearing for his personal safety in regards to his sexual orientation and personal opinions, Marcelo fled Brazil and moved to the United States where he was granted political asylum. There he focused on the great old masters and their techniques, and incorporates his early passions in his art, which consists of oil paintings and charcoal drawings.

Several of Marcelo’s works are inspired by William Bouguereau. The one above is named Viola, and is a remastered version of Bouguereau’s 1885 work Femme au Coquillage (Woman with Seashell). The two versions are shown below you you can compare them.

Three other of his Remastered Bouguereaus are shown below. Click any image to visit the galleries where you can discover many more contemporary versions of the original Bouguereau paintings.