The Sommeil, or Le Sleepers

Yes, the name is a joke.

'The Sommeil' or 'Le Sleepers'

This is a render of Ayalessa and her wife* Velispyr, asleep and smiling after a bit of nuptial naughties, based on the extremely avid painting Le Sommeil by the French Realist painter Gustave Coulbert, finished in 1866.  It was a painting he did for Khalil Bey and is considered one of the finest examples of lesbianism in art to date.  It was not permitted to be shown publicly until 1988 because, well, it's of two obviously post-coital women.  Khalil Bey had a taste for them, apparently.

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Le Sommeil, 'The Sleepers', by Gustave Courbet, 1866

I honestly consider Le Sommeil to be easily one of the most beautiful paintings ever made.  From the light quality  to the subject detail it is a breath-taking piece of art.

My own take on this piece is a humble attempt at vague imitation.  I don't claim for it to be anything as good as the original.  Nonetheless I am rather happy with how it came out.  Please note that certain aspects of the picture, such as the table in the foreground, are not particularly possible to replicate in the render because not all aspects of the original actually follow three-dimensional space exactly.  It's art.  It doesn't need to be bound by petty things like science.

I considered rotating the table to match the one in the original but finally decided not to as the render was never meant to be exactly the same as Le Sommeil; if it were I wouldn't have used elves as the models.

This is the first time I've tried to mimic an existing artwork.  I don't think it'll be a common thing as the work that goes into getting the poses correct, not to mention the different elements within the picture, is quite surprising.

* = Please see the note in the body of this post for an indicator of exactly how disinterested I am in listening to the argument that Aya and Veli can't be married because they're both girls.  With all due respect, don't even bring the discussion to the table.  It won't be entered into.