If you are an art lover, you’ll love this Gucci’s new beauty account on Instagram!

Art — both contemporary and historic — has played a huge role in Alessandro Michele’s tenure at Gucci. He has collaborated with a number of artists on campaigns and capsule collections, and his references to the renaissance have been overt. However his latest project takes his passion to a whole new level. Gucci has just launched a new beauty Instagram account (@guccibeauty), but instead of glamorous models and product shots, every post so far has been a famous painting.

 

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Title: Portraits of two women, 1950 Author: Lois Mailou Jones Private Collection ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Nearly every moment of #LoisMailouJones’s life was captured and shared through her paintings. Her style traversed the aesthetic landscape, first mimicking the work of the post-Impressionists and then drawing from the rich colors and symbols of Africa and Haiti, where she often traveled. In her portraits, Jones was known for her ability to capture the rich complexities of black skin tones, rendering her subjects (often her friends or students from Howard University, where she taught) as near three-dimensional figures. Styled in feminine blouses with red lips and curled hair, Jones manages to capture each woman’s beauty in this 1950 painting’s tight headshots. Jones suggests a familiarity and bond between the two only found through family or friendship. #GucciBeauty — @britticisms Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust

A post shared by Gucci Beauty (@guccibeauty) on Sep 17, 2018 at 4:56am PDT

 

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Title: Portrait of a Woman, c. 1600 Author: British Painter Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Though the identity of this woman and that of the artist who painted her are lost to history, we can infer her royal status through her luxuriant dress and jewelry. Her richly embroidered sleeves and enormous lace collar were typical of the highly rarified Elizabethan court, complete with a pearl-studded veil that enthroned her hair and shoulders. This portrait, now housed at the @metmuseum, was once definitively thought to be that of Queen Elizabeth, though historians today are less sure. Regardless, the anonymous British painter who captured her likeness did so with a striking attention to detail and level of interest in her fashion. #GucciBeauty #TheMet — @tatianaberg Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1911

A post shared by Gucci Beauty (@guccibeauty) on Sep 13, 2018 at 11:29am PDT

 

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Title: Portrait of a Woman, 1890 Author: Louis Anquetin Museum: Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The French painter Louis Anquetin was one of many Post-Impressionist artists influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e prints. For Anquetin, this manifested in his use of bold, dark outlines filled with areas of flat, bright color; an aesthetic that can also be seen in the work of contemporaries like Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec. His work is held in museum collections all over the world, including the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai, Belgium, where this intimate portrait from 1890 is kept. Executed more casually in pastel, here Anquetin’s line work is light and nimble. It’s easy to imagine the artist’s hand flitting quickly across the page, working to capture a fleeting moment and the coyness of his sitter’s gaze. #GucciBeauty — @tatianaberg Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai, Belgium / Bridgeman Images

A post shared by Gucci Beauty (@guccibeauty) on Sep 13, 2018 at 11:30am PDT

 

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Title: Portrait of a Court Lady, Seated Half Length in an Embroidered Robe, Holding a Flower, mid 19th century Author: Chinese School Private Collection ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The Shanghai School of painting introduced a fresh alternative to the then-dominating Literati style. Western-influenced brightly colored portraiture was among the newly adopted styles, a direct reaction to the demands of Shanghai’s mercantile elite who craved something distinct from the traditional aesthetics of the Chinese scholarly and gentry classes. This 19th-century portrait captures the era’s distinct stylistic elements, which included a brightly-colored palette (as depicted in the blues, greens, and reds of the subject’s clothing and large, dangly earrings) and exaggerated physical form. #GucciBeauty — @britticisms Photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images

A post shared by Gucci Beauty (@guccibeauty) on Sep 14, 2018 at 10:09am PDT

The works traverse history as well as gender, culture and geography; with posts spanning 2000 year old Egyptian art, Japanese woodblocks and contemporary African American painters. The story behind each piece of art is explored in the caption by a group of art writers with varying perspectives.

It’s expected that eventually the Gucci Beauty account’s focus will shift from art history to relaunching Gucci’s cosmetics line. The company first attempted cosmetics under Michele’s predecessor Frida Giannini, who collaborated with Pat McGrath on a line in 2014. Unfortunately for us, the line seemed to have gone by the wayside in recent years — until now.

Keep watching @guccibeauty for both an art history lesson and a potential sneak peak at what could be the house’s next bestselling products.