Artist Reimagines 22 Famous Paintings With Disney Characters

We’ve all grown up watching one or more of the characters from Disney movies you’re about to see below. And one way or another, those characters are a form of art, and some scenes resemble perfectly with some famous paintings. But how many of us do actually know about art history? Or better say, how many of us consider it important to know about it in the first place?

You might consider it just some dead character that has been given the illusion of life by coloring it in. But in fact, they have a history within, and knowing history is important because it allows us to understand our past, which in turn allows us to understand our present. Studying history can provide us with insight into our cultures of origin as well as cultures with which we might be less familiar, thereby increasing cross-cultural awareness and understanding.

For those of you who have not paid attention to this, Spanish graphic designer and illustrator Carlos Gromo created a series of Disney characters inspired by famous paintings to help people to memorize these classics better.

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1. Beauty And The Beast

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on Gustav Klimt “The Kiss” (1907)

2. Sleeping Beauty

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on Edmund Blair Leighton “The Accolade” (1901)

The artist, who is also known as carlosgromodraw to his 31.9k Instagram followers, started this project in 2019 when he finished his Fine Arts studies. He realized that many people don’t know much about art history or famous paintings. So he started this ongoing project with an aim to educate people in an entertaining way. The good news is that the project became a huge success and hopefully, people have learned something about classical art.

3. Beauty And The Beast

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on: John William Waterhouse “The Soul of the Rose” (1908)

4. Hercules

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on: John Simmons “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1870)

“This project started because when I finished my Fine Arts career at university, as an artist, I realized that many people didn’t know many of the art paintings and I thought that I could present them in a more original way. I have always liked to draw Disney, so I thought of the idea of starting this project by drawing those characters from the movies in those pictures from art history. In this way, I managed to give visibility to many works of art and artists from different periods,” says the artist to Bored Panda.

5. 101 Dalmatians

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on: Grant Wood “American Gothic” (1930)

6. Beauty And The Beast

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on: Lawrence Alma Tadema “Ask me no more” (1906)

When asked how long it takes for him to make one illustration, he says: “It depends on the complexity of the illustration that I’m going to do. There are illustrations that I can do in three days or, on the contrary, some illustrations take me several weeks or even a month because they were very complex and I had to do it calmly to get the best result.” The artist says that his creative process takes a lot of time, especially deciding on the subject for his next illustration. “I take quite some time to decide since I do a lot of research in books or on the Internet to have a variety of proposals and later, I choose the one that seems most interesting to me. Then, I decide this either because of the resemblance of the character to the painting or by its theme.”

7. Peter Pan

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on: Pierre Auguste Cot “The Storm” (1880)

8. Cinderella

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on: Fausto Carrying “Young Girl Carrying a Pumpkin” (1889)

“I spent a lot of time doing different composition sketches in order to have a first contact with what it could be once it was finished. I work on the lights, shadows, and lines in a very schematic way and without details, to see if the idea is good or if, on the contrary, I have to modify something before starting the final work. I think the best thing is when I have already done the final line art and I start to color the illustration because that is when you already start to feel that the illustration changes completely.”

9. The Princess And The Frog

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on: Lawrence Alma Tadema “The Favourite Poet” (1888)

10. Beauty And The Beast

CarlosGRomoDraw – Based on: Pierre Auguste Cot “Ophelia” (1870)

His series features such animated movie classics as 101 Dalmatians, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, and Sleeping Beauty. The characters from these movies are based on the style and color palette of each painting. For instance, Belle and Beast are depicted as the famous painting “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt. Just like in the painting, they look like a couple embracing each other in beautifully decorated robes. Meanwhile, Roger and Anita Radcliffe from 101 Dalmatians are shown as a farmer and his daughter in the famous 1930 painting “American Gothic” by Grant Wood.