Twice a year, photoshop site Worth1000 organizes a Modern Renaissance contest, challenging digital artists to “put any modern celebrity, actor or popular culture figure as a substitute for the model of a painting or other form of artwork”. The January 2012 edition drew no less than seventy contest entries, five of which were Remastered Bouguereaus. Unfortunately, none of them became prize winners.

Shown above is Rose McGowen by pcysmith. The American actress and singer takes the place of the bather in Bouguereau’s La Vague (The Wave, 1896). Below are the four other adaptations of Bouguereau paintings in this contest. The first two depict actress Natalie Portman, the other two Scarlett Johansson and Bones actress Emily Deschanel, respectively. Click each to visit the galleries where you will find dozens more contemporary versions of the original artworks.

Something strange must have happened in the 19th century. Did aliens visit Bouguereau’s world? Did they mingle with local girls and fathered weird looking babies? Did they visit our planet to kidnap young earthlings? According to this Remastered Bouguereau (and the ones below) they must have…

Shown above is Taken! by digital artist artjan7 who submitted his creation for an Alien Nation contest on Worth1000, in 2006. The picture is based on Bouguereau’s 1900 painting Le jeune frere (Little brother).

Below are four more alien families based on Bouguereau paintings. Click them to visit the galleries where you will find many more remastered versions of the original artworks.

In November 2011, Photoshop site Worth1000 organized the third edition of their popular Punk-A-Ren contest. Digital artists were challenged to “punkitize classical works of art“. The contest drew 26 entries, six of which were Remastered Bouguereaus. One of them was the first-prize winner: Waiting by David Beretta Owens from South Africa. He used Bouguereau’s 1879 painting The Bather for inspiration.

Below are thumbnails of all Remastered Bouguereau’s in this contest, in their order of popularity. Click each to visit the galleries where you will find many more contemporary versions of Bouguereau’s original works.

A surprisingly early snowstorm on the American East Coast in October 2011 inspired Photoshop site FreakingNews to launch a Winter Paintings contest, challenging digital artists to “winterize” famous paintings. Among the 25 contest entries no less than eight were Remastered Bouguereaus. Better still, all three prizes were awarded to winterized Bouguereau paintings!

Shown above is a close-up of gold winner Stuck in snow by Sunshin3. Her artwork is based on Bouguereau’s L’attente (Waiting, 1902). Below are thumbnails of all Remastered Bouguereaus in the contest. Click to visit the galleries where you will find the original paintings and dozens more contemporary variations.

If ever there needs to be proof of Bouguereau’s popularity among digital artists, look no further than the recent Halloween Ren contest on Worth1000. Participants were challenged to “take a classic painting, and Halloweenify it”. The contest drew 26 entries, nine of which were Remastered Bouguereaus. Of those, four took the first four places!

The winner is shown above. Réunion Avec les Morts by kr43m0r is based on Bouguereau’s 1879 painting Au Bord du Ruisseau (At the Edge of the Brook). Below are the four frontrunners in the contest. Click each to visit the galleries where you will find the original paintings and many more contemporary variations.

American artist Chad Wys (website) is a multi-faceted creator of sculptures, photos, videos, paintings, writings, collages and digital works. One of his well-known series of creations goes under the title Process of Elimination. Classic paintings are digitally deconstructed, resulting in ghostly works of art.

Below are six Bouguereau paintings that have been “processed” by Chad Wys. Click them to visit the galleries where you will find many more remastered versions of Bouguereau’s original paintings.

Twice a year, photoshop site Worth1000 organizes a contest in which digital artists are challenged to “take any classical work of art, and robotize it“. The 9th edition of this RoboRen contest drew sixteen entries, five of which were Remastered Bouguereaus. The highest scoring among them was Regina Cylonorum by ChrisEll, which won Silver. (As it turns out, four of the five entries came from him.) The work was based on Bouguereau’s 1900 painting The Virgin With Angels.

Below are thumbnails of all Remastered Bouguereaus in this contest. Click each to visit the galleries where you will find dozens more contemporary versions of the original Bouguereau paintings.

French fashion house Hermès found an original way to advertise their new collection of enamel bracelets. Rather than hiring fashion models they used ladies posing on classic French paintings, and photoshopped the bracelets into the images. The campaign features art by Ingres, Cranach, Duval, Gauguin and several others, including William Bouguereau. Shown above is a close-up of Bouguereau’s Biblis, below is the arm of the bather in Bouguereau’s La Vague.

Bouguereau’s original works are shown here. Click to visit the galleries where you will find many more remastered versions of these paintings.

July 23, 2011 marks the sad but unsurprising death of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. During her short career she released two critically acclaimed albums, Frank and Back to Black. She was the first British singer to win five Grammy Awards. The singer’s problems with drug and alcohol abuse, as well as self-destructive behaviour, were regular tabloid news from 2007 until her death.

There are two Remastered Bouguereaus on this site featuring Amy Winehouse. One of them is shown above, entitled Rehab and created by mateusarc for a Photoshop contest on Worth1000 in 2010. The other is called Amy Inspiration, and was created by multichanneler, also in 2010.

Below you can compare the two versions of each creation. Click the one on the left of each pair to visit the galleries where you will find many more contemporary versions of the original paintings, click the others to view them on Worth1000.

“From ridicule to ubiquity, the bikini has come a long way over the past 65 years. On July 5, 1946, French fashion designer Louis Réard hired an exotic dancer to sport his two-piece creation after the runway models he approached refused to wear it. But despite provoking controversy – centering around everything from morality to skin cancer to liposuction – it is clear that the teenie weenie suit is here to stay.
To celebrate the 65th birthday of the bikini, put bikinis into famous art works – use bikinis in paintings or dress statues in bikinis. ”

That was the challenge on photoshop site Freaking News in July 2011. The contest drew 39 entries, and no less than eight of them were Remastered Bouguereaus. Not surprisingly, three digital artists were seduced by Bouguereau’s 1870 painting Baigneuse (Bather), and dressed the lady in a two-piece bathing suit. The highest scoring among them was Day at the Beach by HoHouse, ending #5 overall, and shown at the left above.

Below you can view the original painting. Click to view many more remastered versions of Bouguereau’s work.