Art often gives us a glimpse of what life was like in decades or centuries past. Here below are three images of a lithograph, photograph and advertisement. Though today we might look at figure 1 and see a homoerotic scene in 1917 this was not the case. The scene set in a bath house shows two figures in the foreground and one can clearly see the heavy set man seems to be the man, though heavy set he has distinct muscular features. Whereas the second man appears slender and feminine. It seems that the heavier man is being betrayed by his erection and is clearly shown to be a man. This view that the penetrator is still a heterosexual male and not homosexual was a long held belief. “There is much more stress on effeminacy…” (Meyer 2010:59). Therefore the penetrated who is subverting his muscular role must be homosexual. Figure 2 the photograph by Abbott. She has her female sitter wearing two masks on her top hat. This I believe showing the two different images one had to portray in order to survive. The homosexual female and the heterosexual image that society expected in 1927. The Leyendecker, figure 3 shows a model who was used in many of his illustrations. The man sitting on the desk was Leyendecker’s life partner though it was never discussed. It is interesting though that image of his affection was illustrated in magazines and billboards across the USA in the first half of the 20th century.
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Figure 1 George Bellows, 1917
Shower-Bath
Lithograph printed on wove paper, 406 x 607mm
Christies, New York, USA
(Bellows 1917)
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Figure 2 Berenice Abbott, 1927
Janet Flanner
Black and white photograph
(Lord & Meyer 2013:79)
(Abbott 1927)
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Figure 3 J.C. Leyendecker, 1912
Arrow Collars Advertisement
Illustration
Jcleyendecker Tumbler page
(Leyendecker 1912)
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