I'd never heard of him until a day or two ago. But
this blog by a member of a gay writers' group I belong to had a piece on him. He was gay, and lived with his guy for nearly 50 years -- and the Christian-Fascists say we can't get married! -- and died 50 years ago. His drawings and paintings are very realistic, against the trend in intellectual arty circles at the time, because of course there wasn't photography, and magazines and advertisers needed images for their publications. Yet in some way I prefer drawings and paintings to photographs because the artist can emphasize what interests them. Cartoons are an extreme form of this, but any painting or drawing is a creation, not just a representation of a static reality. It was something I learned when I took up painting. Your painting, no matter how "realistic" is not in fact an unchanged reduplication of real life. Every picture is subtly distorted, to highlight some things and reduce the importance of others.
Beaut men interested J C Leyendecker. Look at this painting. Lovely. Anyway, I strongly recommend
the longer article in the blog which gives you a fascinating glimpse into the life of someone famous and gay, only the public didn't know about his gay side or his husband. But his life, his gift, and his gayness should be celebrated and widely known. The more gay-shaded people
hoi polloi know about, the more they'll accept us.
3 comments:
Thanks for this post, Nigel. I'm glad you enjoyed by essay. I think Leyendecker was a very talented and interesting man. Unfortunately, extant information about him is limited, but at least images of many of his paintings still exist.
Leslie
Henry Scott Tuke painted idyllic scenes of beautiful youths. He was not a confessed gay but, well, google the paintings.
"He was a confessed gay". No. Prolly not a good idea at the time. But he hobnobbed with Oscar Wilde and other "Uranians" and his images of beautiful young men are infused with longing.
Post a Comment