Desperate Housewives Opening

[alwaysane]

Hi! Does anyone know who are those people they use for the opening montage of desperate housewives?

[sunflower68]

I could be wrong but I think they are well-known paintings where the man is incharge.  They have turned them around to make it the woman taking the lead.  All the apples must be a reference to Eve (of Adam and Eve fame) taking not just one bite of the apple but many, many sins!

[johngammon]

The title sequence of Desperate Housewives is a rather witty collage of how women have been represented in art, including modern commercial art, through the centuries. Any children's book on art will have a lot of the originals. Get down the library and learn!

[tpfan]

The only one i'm sure of is Van Eyck's THE ARNOLFINI WEDDING  - the guy who tosses the banana skin for his wife to sweep up. It's driving me mad too, because the images are so familiar: Cleopatra;  the Andy Warhol reference with the Campbell's soup, in what looks like a 50s ad poster; the True Romance couple with the trademark teardrop on the woman's cheek, nicely updated with the man getting a black eye. I don't know the elderly couple at the end at all, but it's very familiar - I'd love to know the artist.

[kriske]

There's one picture of the "american gothic" couple by Grant Wood.