Describing themselves as “four roommates who love art… and are indefinitely quarantined,” their Covid Classics Instagram account has garnered more than 45,000 followers since recreating their first painting, “The Death of Marat,” on March 22.
Max Sutter, Jeannette Penniman, Cary White and Sam Haller live share a house in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven, and together began self-isolating, following social distancing and other pandemic protocols established in March.
The art recreations were inspired by a video chat with friends, during which Haller donned a towel as an improvised hat, noting a resemblance to French Revolution political figure Jean-Paul Marat, whose 1793 assassination inspired a painting by Jacques-Louis David, Haller and his roommates set about recreating the famous image of Marat, dead in his bathtub.
“This lies at the intersection of two things I love: being publicly praised and exhibitionism,” Haller told the New Haven Independent. Night by night, they continued to recreate famous paintings, at first sharing the images on Facebook.
“If you ever need a model for the soft face of a Dutch peasant girl, I’m your man,” Haller wrote on Facebook, alluding to his appearance as Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer “Milkmaid.”
Clicking on the semi-transparent arrow on the right-side of the image reveals the original painting on which the recreation is based. Each Instagram post by covidclassics also includes a third image, which gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how they recreated the painting.
“The Death of Marat” by Jacques-Louis David
“Saturn Devouring His Son” by Francisco Goya
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 22, 2020 at 8:25am PDT
“American Gothic” by Grant Wood
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 22, 2020 at 4:20pm PDT
“Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 23, 2020 at 7:16pm PDT
“Arnolfini Wedding Portrait” by Jan van Eyck
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 24, 2020 at 4:39pm PDT
“Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1” (Whistler’s Mother) by James McNeill Whistler
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 25, 2020 at 7:47pm PDT
“The Milkmaid” by Johannes Vermeer
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 26, 2020 at 8:07pm PDT
“The Son of Man” by René Magritte
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 27, 2020 at 7:35pm PDT
“The Old Guitarist” by Pablo Picasso
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 28, 2020 at 5:19pm PDT
“Saint Jerome Writing” by Caravaggio
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 29, 2020 at 7:28pm PDT
“Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” by Vincent van Gogh
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 30, 2020 at 8:18am PDT
“John Biglin in a Single Scull” by Thomas Eakins
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Mar 31, 2020 at 1:58pm PDT
Haller wrote on his Facebook page that more art recreations are “on the way,” at least “until the quarantine lifts or we run out of different colored fabrics.”
A post shared by Covid Classics (@covidclassics) on Apr 1, 2020 at 9:44am PDT
Since the launch of Covid Classics, other art enthusiasts have joined in the fun, with the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California challenging its social media followers to recreate famous paintings using just three props found around the house.
For more art in the time of pandemic, visit Covid Classics or the Getty Museum Twitter page.
