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Mussorgsky meme template

Ilya Repin · 1881

Mussorgsky face swap

Painted in a hospital ward over four days, ten days before the composer died.

Mussorgsky, as painted Mussorgsky with a different face swapped into it
An example: another painting's face. Yours goes on the right.

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Under 15 seconds · no sign-up · your selfie is never stored

How it works

  1. Take a photo

    Front camera, decent light, look straight ahead. Or pick one you already have.

  2. We paint you in

    Your face goes into the painting, keeping its light and its brushwork. About fifteen seconds.

  3. Share the link

    You get a page anyone can open. No account, nothing to install.

Where this one comes from

Ilya Repin heard that Modest Mussorgsky was in a military hospital in St Petersburg, went there in March 1881 with a paintbox and no easel, and worked on a table across four sittings. Mussorgsky was forty-one and dying of alcoholism. He died ten days later, on his forty-second birthday. Tretyakov bought the picture immediately and Repin gave the fee to a fund for a memorial. It is one of the most uncomfortable portraits anybody has ever put in a national collection.

What is in the picture

A green hospital dressing gown with a red facing, a shirt open at the neck, hair and beard in complete disorder, and a nose and cheeks reddened by years of drinking that Repin declined to tone down. The eyes are wet and looking up and away. The paint is quick because there was no time to be otherwise, and the background is a bare wall. Everything about it is what a man looks like at the end, painted by a friend who decided that was worth recording.

When people use it

For honesty that has gone past the point of being flattering. Use it carefully — it is the one picture in this catalogue that is not really a joke.

How your face lands in it

A three-quarter head in flat daylight against a pale wall, large in the frame and very loosely painted. Mechanically it is one of the easier targets. Be aware of what you are stepping into: the hair, the beard and the dressing gown all stay, and the result carries the circumstances of the picture with it.

Portrait of Modest Mussorgsky — Ilya Repin, 1881. The painting was made in 1881 and Ilya Repin died in 1930, so it is in the public domain both in its country of origin and in the United States. Source

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Questions

Where was it painted?

In a ward of the Nikolayevsky military hospital in St Petersburg, in March 1881, over four sittings. Repin had no studio equipment with him and worked with the canvas propped on a small table.

What happened to Mussorgsky?

He died ten days after the last sitting, on 28 March 1881, his forty-second birthday, of complications of alcoholism. Pictures at an Exhibition and Boris Godunov were both already written; much else was left unfinished.

Why is it so famous in Russia?

Because of what it refuses to do. Nineteenth-century portraiture of national figures was monumental by default, and this is a sick man in a dressing gown, painted by someone who loved him and would not improve it.

Is it free?

Yes. There is a limit on how many you can make in a day, and sharing one earns the allowance back.

Do you keep my photo?

No. Your selfie is used to make the image and then dropped — it is never written to disk. The finished meme is stored, because it has a link people can open, and it is deleted after 90 days.

Can I use someone else’s face?

Please do not. Use your own. Putting a real person into a picture they did not agree to is exactly the thing this is not for.

Can I post the result?

Yes, anywhere you like. The paintings are public domain; what you make with your own face is yours.