Photo editing programs have long been a part of our lives, so you can rarely see a photo that hasn’t been retouched. However, it’s wrong to think that Photoshop belongs only to the modern world. People have been improving the looks of their portraits for centuries. That means there were specialists in photo retouching that date all the way back to the nineteenth century. Even painters have worked hard to make models look more beautiful than they really were.
At Bright Side, we searched the archives and found photos of royalty from the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, and we compared them to their portrait paintings. At the end of the article, we’ll show you what Vincent van Gogh really looked like.
Isabella II of Spain (1830 — 1904)
Mary of Teck, the spouse of George V (1867 — 1953)
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the mother of Queen Elizabeth II (1900 — 2002)
Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (1846 — 1923)
Victoria, Princess Royal, German Empress (1840 — 1901)
Charlotte of Belgium (1840 — 1927)
Sophie of Württemberg, Queen of the Netherlands (1818 — 1877)
Queen Victoria (1819 — 1901)
Maria Christina of Austria, Queen-consort of Spain (1858 — 1929)
Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma, Princess-consort of Bulgaria (1870 — 1899)
Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia (1882 — 1957)
Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria’s fifth daughter (1857 — 1944)
Alexandra Feodorovna, the spouse of Nicholas II of Russia (1872 — 1918)
Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II (1885 — 1969)
Alexandra of Denmark, the spouse of Edward VII (1844 — 1925)
onus: Vincent van Gogh (1853 — 1890)
What do you think about Photoshop? Do you use it often? Tell us in the comments below.
Barry Manilow explains why he waited decades to come out as gay
During a guest appearance on HBO’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, the 80-year-old Copacabana singer said he didn’t think it was important to announce his sexuality during the earlier decades of his career.
Manilow came out in 2017, almost three years after he married his husband and manager Garry Kief in a private ceremony. The couple have been together for 45 years now, though they’ve kept much of their relationship away from the public eye.
When he came out to People magazine in 2017, Manilow — whose real name is Barry Pincus — worried he’d be “disappointing” some of his fans by revealing his sexuality. Instead, Manilow, who was 73 at the time, said the reaction from his fanbase was “beautiful.”
Despite his current feelings of nonchalance about his own coming out, Manilow said announcing his sexuality as his career was booming would have been a bad idea.
“Now being gay is no big deal,” he explained. “Back in the ’70s it would have killed a career.”
Regardless, the usually very private Manilow said he thinks “everybody knew that Garry and I were a couple all those years.”
“Really, Garry and I’ve been together for so long,” he said. “It just never dawned on me that we’re going to come out. But when we got married, it was a big deal, so we did.”
Manilow credited Kief for saving his life. He said he is thankful he had Kief to support him as his music career was taking off, despite keeping their relationship under wraps.
“As my career exploded, it was just crazy. And, you know, going back to an empty hotel room, you can get into a lot of trouble if you’re alone night after night after night,” Manilow explained. “But I met Garry right around when it was exploding. And I didn’t have to go back to those empty hotel rooms. I had somebody to cry with or to celebrate with.”
Manilow said he did not wish an isolated hotel room for any young people.
“It was pretty lonely until I met Garry. And then it was fun,” he smiled.
Kief is not Manilow’s first spouse. In 1964, Manilow married his high school sweetheart, Susan Deixler. They were married for one year.
Manilow told CNN’s Wallace he “really did love” Deixler, but added “the gay thing was pretty, pretty strong. I couldn’t deny it.”
The singer said he knew he was gay before marrying Deixler, but their marriage ended because Manilow couldn’t be the committed husband his then-wife needed. He revealed that his sexuality was not the reason his marriage failed.
“We had a very nice marriage, it was great, but I was away every night making music, as a young musician would be,” Manilow described. “It wasn’t good for me, and it wasn’t good for her.”
“I couldn’t be the proper husband,” he continued. “I was out making music every night, sowing my wild oats. I wasn’t ready to settle down.”
Brooklyn-born Manilow skyrocketed to international fame in 1974 after his release of the ever-popular pop-rock ballad Mandy. He became one of the biggest-selling musicians of all time. Prior to his success as a singer-songwriter, Manilow was behind a number of famous commercial jingles for brands like State Farm and Band-Aid — a gig that he has said helped him create catchy hooks for his own hit songs.
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