Advertisement

Art-lover alters 'miserable' classical portraits to give them cheesy grins

An art-lover has used a mobile phone to transform some classical portraits at a world-famous museum, by giving the ‘miserable’ pictures beaming smiles.

Olly Gibbs, 27, used a facial recognition app to digitally alter the masterpieces at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

He has now added unnaturally toothy grins to Rembrandt’s self-portrait as the Apostle Paul and the bust of key Dutch politician Johan de Witt by Artus Quellinus.

His photos went viral and saw museum goers across the world use the app and post smiling versions of the Mona Lisa and the Girl with the Pearl earring on Twitter.

MORE: Incredible photos from 1950s show how post-war rebuilding transformed British life
MORE:
General Election 2017 – The most bizarre moments from the campaign trail

Olly said: “I went to an old church tower in Amsterdam.

“Me and my girlfriend climbed to the top of it and it was quite windy and I get vertigo quite badly.

“We took a photo and she looked great but I didn’t. She said don’t worry and pressed a button and the FaceApp did it straight away and I looked really genuinely happy.

“I just saw the paintings and thought they all looked quite miserable, they looked like me at the top of the tower.

“I thought, ‘yeah I can fix that’. We were like children in the museum.”