Curio: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at 11:02PM Curio is our fan art appreciation column. Curated by Nathaniel R
by manga artist Inko Ai Takita.
Up until about last month* we had an incredibly sound theory that had NEON released Celine Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) as originally expected in the fall of last year OR pushed it back fully to its rescheduled February release without that pesky "one week qualifier" that the film would have been a solid Oscar success. In either scenario we believe it could have scored Best Director and Best Cinematography and maybe even Best Actress nominations.
As it was, positioned haphazardly between film years whilst NEON was (justifiably) distracted with making the miracle of Parasite's Oscar success possible, Portrait had to settled for halfsies...
Half of its passionate -- one might even say spiritually devout -- fanbase caught on prior the Oscar nominations (where it received BAFTA and Globe nominations for Foreign Film) and now a much larger and arguably even more obsessed fanbase is growing daily in 2020 now that the film is streaming.
It was quite obviously a film that would find a large niche fanbase and it just needed time to do so. One group that is obviously extremely passionate about the movie are artists (especially female artists) so we thought we'd share some glorious fan art. We hope you enjoy and maybe follow or buy from these artists (though sadly several of them don't have shops... or at least aren't linking to them)...
I didn’t expect so many likes and comments 😭🙏Wanna thank you all for your kind words and encouragements❤️Here is the progress video of this drawing 🙏 Thank you everyone 🙆♀️ pic.twitter.com/PsQKEoK3tB
— I̶D̶A̶ (@CheckPointSSS) December 31, 2019
Isn't this amazing? In progress artwork like this shared by an account called I̶D̶A̶ @CheckpointSSS can be such a jaw-dropping joy to watch (sadly the artist doesn't share their name when asked how to credit this piece on twitter... so this is all we know about them: that they made this and they're talented.
Steven Tzé
This portrait of everyone's favourite French lesbian portrait subject is by Steven Tzé and it was part of a "Portrait of a Lady Challenge" in which some artists tasked themselves with drawing the title character from memory, quickly. You can learn more about Tzé at his official site.
by Spicy Baguette
Here's a fun take by an artist who calls herself Spicy Baguette.
by noyersinthedark
Here's one humorously titled "Me and da homies, Brittany, France (18th century)" by noyers in the dark.
Color us impressed. Ria Grix made a miniature downloadable recreation of a the reception room in Portrait that you can print and then fold into a 3 day room!
ContourBrode is super niche and we love that. The concept is queer film characters hand-embroidered. This artist is from France and you can get these embroidered line drawings on tote bags. Other movies featured are Moonlight, Brokeback, Call Me By Your Name, Happy Together... the list goes on.
by LesboPrints
This painting is on sale from Lesbo Prints. Alas, we don't know the artist's name.
by eromnid
Here's a digital painting from eromnid .
And because we love useful art (and coffee), let's include two coffee mug options.
This one's very blue like the mood the movie will (deliciously) put you in. This is from Kiki at JuniorHighPress.
And here's one from Scraft1980
@marycerealportrait of a lady on fire... but on animal crossing ##acnh ##portraitofaladyonfire ##animalcrossing ##fyp ##animalcrossingnewhorizons ##poalof
♬ Vivaldi Storm - 2CELLOS
and enjoy this Animal Crossing Portrait recreation from TikTok's Mary Cereal
And for this final batch...
I think these are all by downtonzoe since they're on her twitter account and she's inspirationally-obsessed with the movie (and Adele Haenel). She's a prolific/terrific talent. Here are Heloise and Marianne imagined in different eras and scenarios.
Anyway I'm not entirely sure on who downtonzoe is since I can't find a website or links for art sales even though she's clearly making things to sell (lots of pins and stickers of these characters, too, shared on twitter)...
P.S. There's also this unexpected Adele Haenel toonage below (click)! But some reason she credits herself as Gu on this self-generating animation thing ? It can sometimes be difficult on the internet to determine what is happening and who is who and whatnot but we try since we love fan art and believe it should always be shared with a proper credit.
retourne-toi
* we say "up until last month" because obviously no theories are sound about what might happen for this year's Oscars since everything is in total chaos given the theatrical shutdown.
Reader Comments (9)
Ignored at the Academy and rightly so: one of the dullest films ever, with pallid leads.
I can appreciate differences in the art one likes (and many of my friends don't love this film as much as I do, but recognise its qualities). But if you truly feels that it was one of the dullest films ever, then I care not for anything else you say about anything to do with art (movies in particular).
I'm gonna embarrass myself.
I haven't read this page recently as much as I usually do and i just read the articles about films that I've already seen it or the ones I'm interest to watch, that's why I haven't realize what this Curio section is about until I read fan art. Can you believe it?
I've been doing a few cartoons inspired in songs and I want to do the same with films. I would like to know how can I watch one of my draws in this page.
Best movie of 2019
Which picture's yours Mr Talented? I can say with all honesty you are a much better illustrator than writer (and it can't be taken as an insult because your more often flaunted writing is that good too)!
The best movie I saw in 2019
This is a movie about lesbian love directed by a female director. The sensuality, the details, the song at the beach and the last scene is spectacular!
Sooo different from Blue is the warmest color
Pierre ??? i've barely ever shared any artwork on her.
I have the still of Adele Hanel on fire, staring at the camera, as my desktop background. That whole scene is just amazing. I really do wonder what would've happened if Neon tried to program the film in early October or something. But it still did quite well and they obviously nailed their Oscaf season.
Where's @Evan? He hadn't answer even when POALOF flopped even at the Cesars (I really like the film, but srly, some people were SO delusional in their Oscar chances).