Dutch art duo Telmo Miel recently spent a couple of days in Haarlem working on a pretty much 1st large mural in this historic city just outside Amsterdam. Invited by the local initiative that is hoping to bring more color and public pieces into the streets, the artists completed this vibrant mixture of classic and modern aesthetic titled Portrait of a Girl in Blue and Pink, or Mona Gaga, as titled by the locals.

While researching for this project Telmo Miel visited the local Frans Hals Museum where they found out about this important work by Haarlem-born artist Johannes Verspronck. Originally titled Girl in Blue Dress this classic portrait from the middle of the 17th century shows a young girl wearing an extravagant adult dress. Since the original piece is nowadays in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the artists wanted to bring it back to its hometown, but also add some contemporary elements to it. Along with meticulously reproducing the delicate dress painted by the Dutch master, they added an outspoken look of the modern times in the shape of an oversized pink bow and exaggerated sunglasses. The mixture of two time periods and two styles was done in a rough manner, evoking the basic Photoshop intervention, adding further to the extravagance of the finished image.
“To give the artwork a daily and modern twist, we chose to incorporate Lady Gaga. This makes it contemporary, but also classic due to the extravagant dress from older times.” shares the artists