These Portraits of Cara Delevingne Will Soon Hang in a Major Art Show
Cara IV (Selfie) by Jonathan Yeo. (Photo: Instagram.com/Jonathanyeo)
First a museum for the Olsen twins, and now an entire exhibition dedicated to Cara Delevingne?
On Sunday, March 20, painter Jonathan Yeo will debut his latest portraits of the super-model-turned-actress at Denmark’s Museum of National History. Yeo, who is known for his collection of political portraits — his past subjects have included former President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair — has shifted his focus to the former catwalker and face of Chanel, DKNY, and Mulberry, describing her as a “perfect muse.”
Cara Delevingne painting by Jonathan Yeo. (Photo: Instagram.com/Jonathanyeo)
Delevingne, who sat for Yeo six times over the past 15 months, inspired him to paint 12 portraits — nine of which will appear in the exhibition this weekend. Yeo says that hanging his paintings of the 23-year-old Brit beside historical portraits shows that we, as a culture, can “no longer trust digital photographs to be objective and impartial representations of who we all are.“
He also spoke to the similarities between today’s selfie obsession and the work of 16th century painters. “The way we manipulate and read self-portrait images, or ‘selfies,’ in the last five years has far more in common with the activity of the 16th century portrait artists and audiences than any art movement since the birth of photography,” explained Yeo, who is self-taught.
A preview of Jonathan Yeo’s solo exhibition. (Photo: Instagram.com/Jonathanyeo)
This isn’t the first time a painter has exalted a supermodel into the fine arts: In 2002, the now late Lucian Freud (grandson of neurologist Sigmund Freud) painted a portrait of Kate Moss that sold at auction for £3.9 million.
Though it’s not known whether Yeo’s paintings will demand such high figures (his striking portrait of Malala Yousafzai sold for $102K in 2014), we have to hand it to the painter: These latest works are masterfully crafted, undeniably beautiful, and visually appealing to die-hard Delevingners and non-fashion fans alike.
The exhibition is at The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark, and will be open from March 20 until June 30.
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