It’s that wonderful time of year when we get to see Rea Irvin’s Eustace Tilley

…turned into a dandy of another kind.

Here’s my entry, titled Eustace Bloch-Bauer I.

I was inspired by this Gustav Klimt painting of Austrian socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer. 

 

It took Klimt 3 years to complete this portrait.  There’s lots of pretty patterns and lots and of gold.   

After a lengthy court battle between the heirs of Adele and the Austrian government, the painting was brought to the US and sold for the hefty sum of $135 million in 2006.  It has since then become the centerpiece of an art  museum in New York.  So not only do both Tilley and Adele share an aristocratic demeanor, but, fortunately for my appropriation, they will forever be tied to the same city.

The original Eustace Tilley is based on this caricature sketch of the Parisian dandy Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, or Count d’Orsay.  Here he is all fleshed out in this beautiful painting by the English painter Sir George Hayter. 

Ain’t he a cutie? 

See all the entries here.  They pick the 12 winners on January 25th.

Correction: Entries judged on January 25th, winners announced February 6th.