The photographer and artist Lilya Corneli and stylist Olga Schloemer launched the Project “To Be a Muse” after Corneli was inspired by Vienna’s great portrait painters, like Klimt and Schiele. She took a look-alike selfie, posted it on instagram and the concept was born. She then invited friends to reenact the artwork and now she offers two-day experiences for visitors to Vienna. tobeamuse.art
Photographer & Founder of the Project Lilya Corneli
Project Manager Diana Stoynova
Makeup Artist Ekaterina Bobrov
Styling Olga Schloemer
Of all the artists pursuing the style “Arts Decoratifs,” Tamara de Lempicka was one of the most memorable. She once said, ” I was the first woman to paint cleanly, and that was the basis of my success. From a hundred pictures, mine will always stand out.” In this portrait, Romana de La Salle is depicted with a hard face. She tilts her head slightly, as is generally the case
in Lempicka’s portraits of women, who thus are made to seem sophisticated and reserved.
Jean Gabriel Domergue’s At the Bar is one of over 3,000 portraits the French painter created of Parisian women. His wide eyed, slender-necked subjects are often nude, which is why he has been called the inventor of the pin-up.
In 1955, he became the curator of the Musée Jacquemart-André, organising exhibitions including Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Francisco Goya and others . He died in 1962 on a Paris sidewalk.
Egon Schiele’s Self-Portrait with Peacock Waistcoat shows a handsome, talented bad boy in his own time. He portrays himself flamboyantly as a dandy, fancily clad in a black suit, peacock vest, and cravat, with face and hands made up in extravagant colors, directling the viewer’s attention to his voluptuous lips. Today, he would be a rock star. In this juxtaposition, the photographer, Lilya Corneli is the lookalike.
Henri Matisse was known for both his use of color and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was also a printmaker and
sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Along with Picasso, Matisse helped define and influence radical contemporary art in the 20th century. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting.
Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and eventually hearing the words “Fahrscheine bitteee!” (Tickets, please!) while travelling on Vienna’s Public Transit. Encounters with…
