Japanese Illustrator’s ‘Real Museum Girls’ Series Reinterprets Classic Paintings In Social Networking Age

As you can guess from the header image showing Vermeer’s “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” and Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” enjoying selfies together, this article introduces a series of illustrations which reinterpret classic paintings with a modern twist, imagining the women in candid moments capturing their lives on social media.

This witty series comes courtesy of Isuka, a Japanese illustrator who, in addition to creating original works, draws fan art of various anime and games.

Isuka’s ‘Real Museum Girls’ series re-establishes the primacy of the subjects depicted in the artworks. These “museum girls” are not casual visitors posing in front of art for the benefit of their fans but the protagonists of the artworks themselves. Here, social media provides a new window into the lives of these women, as we see them posting selfies and providing commentary on the situations they find themselves in.

More: Twitter (jp) h/t: grapee














If you want more awesome content, subscribe to Design You Trust Facebook page.

More Inspiring Stories

Gallery Archives The Bizarre Tradition Of African Popular Bootleg Movie Posters, And They’re So Bad They’re Good

If You Take A Selfie Through A Toilet Roll Tube, You’ll Look Like The Moon

Stunning Oil Paintings Of NYC Subway Riders Reading Magazines... And All The Males Are Animals!

After This Guy Posted A Photo Of A Giant Rice Wave, People Turned It Into A Hilarious Photoshop Battle

Psychedelic and Nothing Superfluous: Illustrations by The Artist SilllDa

Spectacular Winning Photos from the 2025 iPhone Photography Awards

Post COVID-19 Signage For The Design-Conscious Workplace

Le Vampir Glorieux: Bizarre Vintage Paintings of Vamprires by Boleslaw Biegas

These Imaginative Sci-Fi Worlds Somehow Feel Like Home

Artist Tishk Barzanji Explores Human Tragedy In Psychedelic Architectural Illustrations

Cleverly Pointing Out The Ironies Of Life Through the Socially Disturbing Illustrations of Jeff Mahannah

Bizarre Scotch Tape Portraits By Wes Naman

The Dark Surrealism of Arturo Rivera

15 Comics That Perfectly Capture The First Year Of Being A Mom

Dark, Fantasy, Cinematic Artworks and Character Design by Alexandre Chaudret

Artist Shows The ‘Unseen’ Side Of Popular Characters And People Are Saying It Looks Just Wrong

This Artist Drew These 30 Animals So “Badly”, It Might Be A New Style

The More You Connect, The Less You Connect

Baker Kat Thek Trolls Donald Trump With Cakes That Use His Own Words

"The Witches of Fabersham Forest": The Dark Surrealism and Visual Mysteries of Noah Stacey

Beautiful Parisian Pin-Up Paintings By Jean-Gabriel Domergue

German TV Show Replaced Trump With The Baby Blimp, And It’s Perfect

Russian Blogger Makes Parodies Out Of Celebrity Photos, And More Than 20,000 Followers On Instagram Approve

"The Art And Science Of Ernst Haeckel": A Compendium Of Colorfully Rendered 19th-Century Biological Illustrations

"Someone Else's Dream": ’80s-Inspired Illustrations by James White

Plus-Size Woman Asks 21 Photoshop Editors To Make Her Beautiful

"Wipe Away Your Bad Vibes": Surreal Digital Manipulations by Alessandro Malossi

"We Do Lockdown": A Razor-Sharp Satire of COVID-19 Lockdown Life Packed Full of Parodies of Vintage Illustrations by Miriam Elia

Beautiful Paintings on Fallen Tree Logs Mirror Their Natural Origins

Incredibly Unique Shadow Doodles By Vincent Bal