What happens in museums when the doors close? No, we’re not talking about the casual routine of ending a working day, nor the “Night at the Museum” directed by Shawn Levy. We’re talking paintings, or the secret life of their subjects, to be more exact.
In the dead of night, without the presence of noisy visitors and their cameras, at least in the museum created by the artist Lesya Guseva, heroes of classical works of art come to life and have fun in a way never seen before. All this is “documented” in an amusing project called “Night at the Museum”.
Lesya Guseva is famous for her humorous drawings of superheroes and illustrations of renowned paintings during their creation. This time, the artist decided to reveal what characters of well-known paintings do at night when no one is watching them and we are more than excited to witness that!
"The Unequal Marriage" by Vasily Pukirev
"American Gothic" by Grant Wood
Image credits: Grant Wood, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"Night at the Museum"
Image credits: _lesya_guseva_
Lesya is a self-taught artist that has no education in classical art. The artist shared with us that she started drawing at the age of 25. They were comics about a squirrel called “Little Shi” in which Lesya reflected on her experiences, life, and emotions. Later on, she started creating digital illustrations and drawings. However, right now, Lesya told us that she is more interested in working with traditional techniques.
"Girl With Peaches" by Valentin Serov
Image credits: Valentin Serov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"Merchant's Wife at Tea" by Boris Kustodiev
Image credits: Borisas Kustodijevas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"Night at the Museum"
Image credits: _lesya_guseva_
"Night at the Museum" is a project that allows Lesya to educate her subscribers about art (biographies of various artists and the general history of painting techniques). "I try to imagine what would happen if characters from the paintings came to life. And after I post the illustrations, I share some stories about the characters from the drawings and interesting facts about an artist's life, his work, and so on. People seem to be enjoying that a lot. They write to me, 'It's a pity that they didn't teach us that at school as interestingly as you do.'"
"The Bay of Naples" by Ivan Aivazovsky
Image credits: Ivan Ayvazovsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"Bogatyrs" by Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov
"Night at the Museum"
Image credits: _lesya_guseva_
"The Son of Man" by Rene Magritte
Image credits: renemagritte.org
"Night at the Museum"
Image credits: _lesya_guseva_
The artist shared that the ideas for the "night activities" come naturally to her. "I take a famous painting by an artist I would like to tell a story about, and then I think, what could happen to its characters? What could they do? What do they care about? What can they worry about? And the plot just pops up in my head itself."
"The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci
Image credits: Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"Night at the Museum"
Image credits: _lesya_guseva_
"Bathing the Red Horse" by Kuzma Sergeyevich Petrov-Vodkin
Image credits: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"The Dance" by Henri Matisse
Image credits: henrimatisse.org
"Night at the Museum"
Image credits: _lesya_guseva_
The most difficult part of the creative process for Lesya is finding interesting facts about the artists and making a fascinating narrative out of them. Also, creating a feeling that a character that has been "conserved" in a painting for such a long time has suddenly come to life. For the most pleasant part, the artist mentioned positive feedback from her subscribers and their enthusiastic comments.
"Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear and Pipe" by Vincent van Gogh
Image credits: Vincent van Gogh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"Lady With an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci
Image credits: Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
"Night at the Museum"
Image credits: _lesya_guseva_
"Girl on a Ball" by Pablo Picasso
Image credits: Pablo Picasso, 1905, Acrobate à la Boule (Acrobat on a Ball), oil on canvas, 147 x 95 cm, The Pushkin Museum, Moscow
"Again Deuce" by Fedor Reshetnikov
Image credits: en.opisanie-kartin.com
"Night at the Museum"
Image credits: _lesya_guseva_