Living Portrait four old-master portraits that breathe, blink and look at you
Girl with a Pearl Earring, the Mona Lisa, Lady with an Ermine and a Van Gogh self-portrait, one per tab. The sitter breathes, blinks, glances away, and now and then smiles. Move your mouse and the eyes follow.
Free to install. Living Portrait unlocks with Pro, $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Cancel anytime.
What you see on every new tab
Living Portrait hangs one classic painting on the New Tab page and lets the sitter live a little. The painting itself is what moves: the original image is gently warped by motion maps prepared in advance, so the brushwork stays the painter's own.
Four paintings: Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (about 1665), Leonardo's Mona Lisa and Lady with an Ermine, and Van Gogh's Self-Portrait of 1889. You get one at random on each new tab, never the same twice in a row.
Small signs of life: breathing, a blink every few seconds, a glance away now and then, a slow drift of the head. The first smile comes a few seconds after the tab opens, then about once a minute or two.
Details: the pearl earring swings like a real pendulum, and the ermine tilts its head, flicks an ear and sniffs.
Nothing is a video. The painting is moved live on your graphics card, and the blinks, glances and smiles are timed at random, so it never loops.
What it reacts to
Mouse: the eyes, and slightly the head, follow your cursor for a few seconds after it moves. Bring it close to the ermine and the animal reacts.
Click: click the painting and the sitter smiles or smirks.
Night: the picture dims after dusk, like a gallery with the lights turned down.
Free or Pro?Pro
Ambient New Tab is free to install, with three free themes. Living Portrait is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Living Portrait full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.
Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
Pick Living Portrait. Done.
Living Portrait on a 1280×800 New Tab page.
Questions
Which painting will I get?
One of the four, picked at random each time you open a new tab, and never the same one twice in a row.
Is Living Portrait free?
It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released. Cancel anytime.
Are the paintings free to use?
All four are old-master works long in the public domain.
Does it work on my phone?
No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome and Edge on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.
