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Mona Lisa Baker: ‘I never imagined I would do something like this’ |
Smile, please: Real-life Mona Lisa poses for artists re-creating Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece
SHE may not have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci but admirers of Stroud Green’s real-life Mona Lisa say she has got that distinctive mysterious smile.
Mona Lisa Baker, from Crouch Hill, has been posing for her portrait at Claremont Community Centre in Angel.
Twenty artists aged from 59 to 80 are painting her likeness for an art project due to be unveiled on April 24. The workshop, led by tutor and artist Darren Marshall, is re-creating the original painting as closely as possible, using oils and correctly sized canvases.
A backdrop replicating the fantasy scene in da Vinci’s masterpiece was created through the education programme of Islington’s Cubitt Gallery, which has helped develop the project with Claremont.
Mona Lisa said: “I was delighted to be asked to sit for this project, and am really pleased I can do something positive for other people. I never imagined I would do something like this.”
She added: “My name came from a very bad experience that turned into something very positive, just by accident. I was christened as ‘Mona’ but when I went to university I was teased terribly – the name means something bad in northern Italian slang.
“My best friend at the time was Lisa, so someone suggested I change my name to Mona Lisa and I have been known by that ever since. In Italy, she’s called La Gioconda. When I tell people my name they all say ‘Wow, what a beautiful name!’ Nobody forgets me.” |
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