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Artist Recreates Realistic Images Of Well-Known Historical Figures Using AI (11 New Pics)
In history, especially before the invention of photography, paintings have been invaluable for documenting what historical personalities looked like. Nowadays, however, the art of portrait has little use as a document, even though the artistic value hasn't changed. Paintings have an inseparable quality to them, which they can rarely ever transcend—a painting almost always looks like one. Nevertheless, with the advent of AI-generated images, paintings are still the primary source and material for drawing inspiration for recreation.
Nathan Shipley puts the paintings of famous historical personalities to good use. He uses them together with AI to recreate an incredibly realistic image, making something which was impossible even to imagine a few decades ago; namely, the possibility of seeing the "true" image of, say, George Washington, now seems incredibly close with the use of artificial intelligence. This time, Nathan the VFX artist has baked a new batch of images based on paintings and names most of us know from our history classes, mostly focusing on the British royalty, the Tudor dynasty, to be precise, along with other personalities like George Washington, William Shakespeare, etc. It isn't Nathan's first time being featured on Bored Panda. Here's the previous post on the same topic we're presenting to you today.
More info: Instagram | twitter.com | nathanshipley.com
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
William Shakespeare
"That is the only portrait of Shakespeare that has a good claim to have been painted from life."
EA 5 years ago
Nah. He looks more like the villain from Ever After (really good 90s film with Drew Barrymore)
Ollie Finn 4 years ago
An interesting idea....and it reveals a hint of Shakespeare's inner rapscallion.
Marvin HeartofGold 5 years ago
Need some more wild hair and he looks like the ancient aliens guy
Grumble O'Pug 5 years ago
Funny doesn't look like Edward de Vere. And even AI doesn't get it right. wow.
Cynthia Bonville 5 years ago
In the portrait his hair was much kinky my dude, not that flat...
The artist told in a previous interview (which you can find in the link to the previous post above) about his background in VFX and animation. He realized that AI and machine learning have opened up new and unexplored possibilities in his creative efforts and saved resources. For him, it was fascinating to explore how AI worked in terms of recreating the world, and how it interprets it. "It’s great to see a finished image, but it’s even more exciting to try new code, use code in ways it wasn’t meant to be, combine different tools together, and create entirely new art through new processes," he said. Even though Nathan sees it as an open experiment, it has its own limitations. For example, AI doesn't recognize and recreate headwear, the wigs don't look exactly as they should, etc. Even though AI is powerful, it is still somewhat blind to its inconsistencies.
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#2
Anne Boleyn
"On Anne: Her beheading was ordered by her husband, Henry VIII. There is a good deal of writing and debate about the topic of Anne's appearance amongst historians. Descriptions of her by her opponents during her life make her out to be an ugly 6-fingered monster, while she is represented as beautiful in modern television; portrayed by Natalie Dormer in The Tudors. A Venetian diplomat described her at 21 as "Not one of the most handsome women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, a bosom not much raised and eyes which are black and beautiful."
Allan Breum 5 years ago
I love how the Venitian diplomat's description boils down to; Slim, tan, and pretty eyes.
Lynne Stankard 5 years ago
Her long neck was her main attribute that people who knew her commented on.
Miriam Meyer-Plath 5 years ago
Given that she's portrayed by Natalie Dormer in The Tudors, she is not represented as beautiful in modern television.
Grumble O'Pug 5 years ago
Lucy Worsley: Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.
#3
Henry VIII
"Henry VIII was the second Tudor monarch and was King of England from 1509 to 1547. Of the painting, the Barberini Corsini describes, "the subject’s frontal pose, his sumptuous clothes and jewelry, and his gaze staring out at the viewer all stamp the portrait with a vivid image of Henry’s grandeur and power."
Franc Esca 5 years ago
He's one of the worst people of his century, and he was 2x fatter than that, reports say
Noel Benavente 5 years ago
There's an ex chancellor in my country exactly like him XD norman-cal...d25e5c.jpg 
Nathan is also no stranger to arts and crafts. He has always loved to take photos, draw and paint, and always had a computer by his side ever since he was little. "The combination of traditional art and technology has been a natural step for me and led to my career in VFX and animation," he said. His favorite part of creating art is the process of actually making it. To paraphrase, it's the journey, not the destination that entices him, though he is eager to see how it all turns out. And as GANs (generative adversarial networks) and neural networks are still very fresh in the scene, the journey is only beginning for him and others.
#4
Henry VII
"Henry VII was the founder of the House of Tudor, the King of England, and the Lord of Ireland until his death in 1509."
Davor Jelacic 5 years ago
Because artists of the era just plain sucked at mouths and painted deformed doodles... But oddly just the mouths
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Stacy Beare 5 years ago
And where are yours then with all the 'easy' to fix improvements?
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Queen Elizabeth I (Young)
This image of Elizabeth is from 1546 when she was about 13 years old. It was painted before she ascended to be queen and is part of the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.
EA 5 years ago (edited)
When they had no clean drinking water and only drank beer, ale and wine, didn’t eat any vegetables or hardly any fruit, just lots of meat and pastry, had no form of skin care and covered their faces in white make up made from lead, yes they did. She also had small pox as a child and had scars all over. So this is probably the painter being nice and ‘photoshopping’ :/
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Hybris Eisoptron 5 years ago
Low life expectancy doesn't mean they were ageing at a superfast rate, it just means a lot of people died at childbirth, from things like appendicitis, infected teeth, etc.
#6
Mary Tudor
"Mary Tudor, A.K.A. "Bloody Mary"
Mary earned the name "Bloody Mary" for burning protestants at the stake for heresy during her reign. She is the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon."
EA 5 years ago
She had PSOs and thinning hair, and likely hormone deficiencies, which made her have more masculine features. She had such a terrible childhood and was ill for most of it. It doesn’t excuse her behaviour in later life but you can empathise with how lonely she was and see how that affected her personality.
#7
Edward VI
"Edward VI is the third Tudor monarch and succeeded Henry VIII to be the King of England from 1547 to 1553. He was the son of Henry VII and Jane Seymour."
#8
Queen Elizabeth I (Old)
Seabeast 5 years ago
Her face was thickly caked in white lead makeup for most of her life, so she would have looked a lot worse than that.
marianne eliza 5 years ago
To hide smallpox scars so w/o makeup she would have looked even worse than you think.
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Mimi 5 years ago
Why do you all look at it if you don't like them? Somebody put time and effort in this, everyone is free to try themselves! We'll never know what the painters back then saw or were allowed to paint. I think it's amazing to imagine how they might have looked, as it feels so much closer and more easy to imagine.
Rhys Hoffman 4 years ago
I read years ago an eyewitness once inadvertently saw her in her natural appearance and was sad to be presented with a frail and very old looking woman who was struggling to climb the staircase.
Lady Clare 4 years ago
she never had blonde hair it is speculated that that painting was painted after her death
Glynis Buller 5 years ago
where are the small pox scars? The reason she wore so much white lead on her face?
#9
George Washington
Zoe Hoesley 5 years ago
Curve the nose down and make him look like he hates his life then it’s George
Digital Yarbs 3 years ago
Washington's life mask would have yielded more accurate results. Paintings are not accurate. https://yarbs.net/life-mask-reconstructions/
Mónica Elisabeth Sacco 5 years ago
Just one retail: Washington had no teeth in the original portrait. It's matter of study and such detail should've been taken into account.
Janna Gelfand 5 years ago
They missed the lack of teeth. He wore wooden dentures by this time and his mouth was probably stuffed with cotton to ease the pain. Also, this looks like a young man with white hair. Washington was an older man by this time.
slsl 5 years ago
Sorry, but Washington didn't wear wooden teeth. See-- https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/health/washingtons-teeth/
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Milord Cutter 5 years ago
Just plain WRONG! That guy looks moderately amused. It is well documented that Washington was a notorious sourpuss and a prig.
#10
Queen Elizabeth I (Middle-Aged)
This image of Elizabeth when she was around 40 years-old is based on the "Darnley Portrait" from 1575 which is part of the collection at the National Portrait Gallery.
Morgan Edwards 3 years ago
Again, Queen Elizabeth was a fair skinned, natural redhead. Her eyebrows were not dark.
Smoo Thie 5 years ago
By that time, women had large forehead because it was trendy; they were used to pluck hair to make their forehead look bigger
Load More Replies... Niffler_13 5 years ago
Most paintings of aristocrats were altered to hide defects (genetic defects mostly) and to make them look more pleasing. Who would paint a true to life/ugly image of Royalty when you could be put to death for it?
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Anne Boleyn
Chewie Baron 5 years ago
Nor do I think it's Anne Boleyn either, looks more like Catherine Howard. Henry VIII's fifth wife.
Megzymonsta 5 years ago
Catherine Howard was 18 or younger when she died, that doesn't look like a teenager to me. I always heard there was only every one sitting portrait of Anne Boleyn which was made whilst she was alive though Elizabeth 1 ordered a few after she became queen in memory of her mother. This likely isn't a real representation of what Anne Boleyn actually looked like, I doubt the painter ever actually saw her in person
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A. DILLI MOSES - 5 years ago
its like they just copy pasted some random persons hed that looked really similar
PastelPoison 5 years ago
dude.. how else would the artist recreate a realistic portrait of a famous historical person. -_-
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What do you think ?
Museo 5 years ago (edited)
You can't convert these old pictures into naturalistic images and think that you can come close to the real appearance of the portrayed. The images back then were not meant to be naturalistic at all, but heavily exaggerated to bring out the essence and character of these people. You also don't convert caricatures into "realistic images" and believe that people really look like that.
Amazon QT 5 years ago
99% of the portraits that were painted (back then) were more flattering for the subject then being actually accurate.
Load More Replies... BorPand8 5 years ago
I don't think so. Most people you see on TV, movies, Instagram etc look better, but if you go down to your local Walmart and look around you'll see plenty of people who look worse than those in this article.
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Onion rings like to make your breath smelly 5 years ago
Im so used to seeing them as old, cracked paintings. Its weird seeing them as real people with real faces
Museo 5 years ago (edited)
You can't convert these old pictures into naturalistic images and think that you can come close to the real appearance of the portrayed. The images back then were not meant to be naturalistic at all, but heavily exaggerated to bring out the essence and character of these people. You also don't convert caricatures into "realistic images" and believe that people really look like that.
Amazon QT 5 years ago
99% of the portraits that were painted (back then) were more flattering for the subject then being actually accurate.
Load More Replies... BorPand8 5 years ago
I don't think so. Most people you see on TV, movies, Instagram etc look better, but if you go down to your local Walmart and look around you'll see plenty of people who look worse than those in this article.
Load More Replies... Onion rings like to make your breath smelly 5 years ago
Im so used to seeing them as old, cracked paintings. Its weird seeing them as real people with real faces
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