Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories
Among the glut of shows recently released on Netflix is the second series of Sex Education, a delightful if improbable story about Otis, a teenage schoolboy (Asa Butterfield) who dispenses sex and relationship advice to his peers.
The show’s creator Lulu Nunn is clearly a fan of cultural mash-ups: the series is filmed in the Welsh countryside, with a cast of British-accented actors, playing teachers and students at the quintessentially American Moordale High (think varsity jackets, swim teams and bullying by the lockers). No surprise, then, that – as the eagle-eyed art dealer Philip Mould pointed out on Twitter – the posters for the new series take a similarly hybrid approach. Cue: Otis as Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit (or, rather, fleshy vegetables).
Delighted to notice that @NetflixUK has plundered a Caravaggio to help carry #netflixsexeducation to our bosom. Anybody have any other perky old masters in mind to do the job? pic.twitter.com/77t3ygQTGw
— Philip Mould (@philipmould) February 3, 2020
Your correspondent can’t resist trying to match further Sex Education posters to Old Master paintings – with mixed success. Let Rakewell know if you can do better.
First up: the headmaster’s son Adam Groff and his pet pup Madam – as Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Lady with a Lap Dog (c. 1665)?
![](http://www.apollo-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/rakewell-SE2.jpg?resize=730%2C486)
The studious Maeve Wiley appears to have taken notes from this portrait of a certain Geronimo Foscarini, Procurator of St Marks, by Jacopo Tintoretto.
![](http://www.apollo-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/rakewell-SE4.jpg?resize=730%2C486)
The kids of Sex Education are no saints – but Maeve’s best friend Aimee certainly has a beatific air here. Guido Reni’s St James the Great (c. 1636–38), anyone?
![](http://www.apollo-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/rakewell-SE3.jpg?resize=730%2C486)
And finally, with his flamboyant ways, it’s only fitting that Eric Effiong model his look on the queen of excess – Marie Antoinette as rendered by Vigée Le Brun.
![](http://www.apollo-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/rakewell-SE5.jpg?resize=730%2C486)
Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch at rakewell@apollomag.com or via @Rakewelltweets.
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It’s time for the government of London to return to its rightful home