Claus Goes Classic. Santa Inserted Into Famous Paintings.

Santa Inserted Into Famous Paintings

Photographer Ed Wheeler has been dressing up as Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick and inserting himself into great works of art since 2013. As Father Christmas, Wheeler makes an appearance in paintings by such masters as Rembrandt, Manet, Matisse, Rousseau, Homer, David and many more.

Santa Inserted Into Famous Paintings

Vermeer's The Art of Painting
above: Wheeler puts himself dressed as Santa into Johannes Vermeer’s The Art of Painting

The collection, Santa Classics, is created in a multi-step process so the integration is somewhat seamless. Matching the lighting, brushstrokes and tonal values of the selected work, his intent is to pay homage to the original paintings while offering art lovers an additional reason to smile.

Of course there are the expected – The Birth of Venus, The Creation of Adam, Luncheon On The Grass, Dogs Playing Poker, etc. The collection is quite large now, but here are a some of my favorites.

Caspar David Friedrich’s The Wanderer:
Caspar David Friederich – Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

Rene Magritte’s Golconda:
Rene Magritte, Golconda

Winslow Homer’s The Gulf Stream:
Winslow Homer's the gulf stream

Rembrandt’s The Jewish Bride:
Rembrandt's The Jewish Bride

Edouard Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergere:
Edouard Manet's Bar at the Folies- Bergere

Toulouse Lautrec’s At the Moulin Rouge:
Toulouse Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge

Auguste Renoir’s The Large Bathers:
Auguste Renoir's The Large Bathers

Hiroshige’s Visitors to the Shiba Jingu Palace:
Hiroshige's Visitors to the Shiba Jingu Palace_

Henri Matisse’s The Dance:
Henri Matisse's The Dance

Edvard Munch’s The Scream:
Edvard Munch's The Scream

Gerome’s Pygmalion and Galatea:
Gerome's Pygmalion and Galatea

Brown’s Romeo & Juliet:
Brown's Romeo & Juliet

De la Tour’s The Education of the Virgin:
De la Tour's The Education of the Virgin

And some of the more expected ones mentioned above.

Botticelli’s Birth Of Venus:
Santa Classic, Botticelli's Venus

Manet’s Luncheon On The Grass:

Santa Classics, Manet's Luncheon On The Grass

Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam:

Santa Classics, Michelangelo's Creation+of+Adam

Coolidge’s A Friend In Need (aka Dogs Playing Poker)

Coolidge's A Friend in Need

And, of course, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks:
Hopper's Night Hawk

at top: Henri Rousseau’s The Dream

A few of his pieces are available as greeting cards from the Philadelphia Museum of Art

See new and more of Ed Wheeler’s Santa Classics here

About Ed Wheeler (from his site):
For the past thirty years, Ed has photographed people, places and things for some of the most important corporations in America. He is comfortable with the CEO whose only got ten minutes, the machine operator who has turned metal since high school, and the four year old with less patience than the CEO.

Rare is the person who is excited about standing in front of the camera, but Ed has coaxed the best out of the most reluctant. He is the kind of person you want to represent you to your top executives, your important clients, your board of directors. Ed was educated at the Wharton School of Business, born to an old Philadelphia family, and no part of his body is pierced by jewelry.

Ed can take a location that resembles the Dark Ages and make it look like tomorrow. He has an eye that can tell the story and hide the flaws. He has shot in a coal mine two miles down, a helicopter 2,000 feet up, on an oil rig far out to sea, and on top of Mt. Whitney. He has shot in 35 countries on five continents. He has learned to work through the barriers of language, culture and politics. He can even drive on the left hand side of the road.

Ed Wheeler