Artist and her dog recreate famous paintings and they are as adorable as you would imagine

Artist Eliza Reinhardt and her pup Finn are adorable and they took it up a notch as they recreated famous works of art. At the start of the pandemic, in 2020, when everyone was cooped up in their homes, one of the many challenges on the internet was to recreate famous art with stuff you had at home. It was titled the Getty Museum Challenge. Reinhardt and her pup Finn aced the challenge but they never stopped either, still continuing to make famous art. A year on from the challenge, Eliza Reinhardt's Instagram account has some of the most wholesome artwork. Finn, the Australian Shepherd, is all game and takes his work seriously. Not to mention he's incredibly cute.

Reinhardt, who's an artist, goes to great lengths to recreating artwork using paint and props to pay homage to a piece of art she chooses for the day. Eliza Reinhardt tries to capture the essence of the image as opposed to creating a faithful version. Finn, of course, is a part of them all. She even reversed the role in one painting with her playing a dog and Finn playing a human being. All of her work in the series is complex and involves a lot of props, colors, and work. It was her mother who suggested she include Finn in the project. "I vividly remember my mom told me about the museum challenge and thought I should do it with Finn. In the beginning, it didn’t occur to me to be “funny” about it… I took it VERY literally," Reinhardt told My Modern Met. 

She first started to look up paintings with dogs but then inverted the idea and started to get Finn to become numerous things. "I remember I went to The MET online collection and searched for “dog painting” because Finn is a dog, he can only be a dog in the recreation. That didn’t last long as I started to question it…why can’t Finn be a person? A bird? A vase? He can be anything! I think once I got out of the mindset that Finn had to be a dog, things really took off," said Reinhardt. She's covered a lot of famous paintings—including the work of Picasso, Pollock, and Van Gogh among others. Each piece of art can take 4-6 hours with complex work taking up to 10 hours.

Reinhardt worked to include Finn so he could have some fun but turns out he was just as serious about it as her. "Finn is a superstar! He’s a 3-year-old Australian Shepherd. I thought that when we started this project, he would enjoy helping out and doing something with me, but I never expected he would take it as seriously as he does. He’s a working breed, so he has 110% taken these daily photos as his job. He will work so hard and try to do absolutely anything I ask," she added. 

She added that Finn has anxiety issues but feels safe while wearing shirts. He gets excited as soon as she holds out a t-shirt, she said. "So the costumes he absolutely adores. I’ll ask him if he’s ready to take the photo and hold open a t-shirt, he’ll run over and stick his head in and then give me each of his paws to put through the sleeves. As for poses… he is such a trooper. It seems like he knows that if he’s on the stool or I placed him in a certain position he isn’t supposed to move. Once I say, “Okay! You’re all done!” He is SO proud of himself, gives me a high five, and of course, gets a treat," she said. Eliza Reinhardt takes most of the photos herself but sometimes she gets her partner, who's a photographer, to take their pictures. 

You can follow Reinhardt on her website as well as Instagram, and even buy her artwork on Etsy.