Daphne Selfe as Rembrandt
Portrait of Genius
The description “Old Master” is an acknowledgement of the wisdom and achievements of a select group of artists. It is intended to display their genius, their power and to establish their primacy as masters of their art. Both words are intended as a measure of respect.
However if the second of these words, Master, is feminized to Mistress the term Old Mistress becomes pejorative and becomes a belittlement of feminine creative achievement. The phrase now becomes all about a lack of power.
In this series of images of world renowned Classical Super-Model Daphne Selfe the model as collaborator has become five different Old Masters, Titian, Rembrandt, Le Brun, Reynolds and Turner.
Dressed in contemporary clothing but lit and photographed to replicate five renowed Old Master Self-portraits Daphne fills the vacuum left by Old Mistresses ignored by history.