Followers

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Eugene Jansson


Eugene Jansson was born in Stockholm in 1862 and spent the first half of his career as an accomplished landscape painter.


He was famous for his Munch inspired nighttime landscapes, featuring gorgeous shades of blue. These works were highly sought after and his career was flourishing, but Jansson was exhausted and had lost interest in landscapes. He decided to change the direction of his work and it would be a drastic change.


Jansson met his muse and lover, Knut Nyman, while at the Navy Bath-house in Stockholm.




The Naval bath-house, and it’s many handsome young members, would become the inspiration for the second half of Jansson’s career as a painter. His love of men and his passion for painting suddenly merged with his new works.





His painting of his lover Knut, “Naken Yngling” (Nude Youth) was exhibited 1907.



Jansson and Knut lived an isolated life for many years while he worked on his new series of paintings.


Jansson's self portrait in the bath-house is oddly revealing for a man who lived in a society where he wasn't allowed to be openly gay.



Jansson and Knut shared a house together, next to his painting studio, until 1912. Jansson painted 4 monumental works set in a bathhouse, as well as nude athletes, until he died cerebral hemorrhage in 1915. 



After Jansson’s death, his brother (who was also gay) destroyed most of the artist’s letters and papers. This was most like done to avoid a scandal since homosexuality was illegal in Sweden until 1944, Until very recently, art historians have ignored Jansson’s homosexuality despite the obvious homo-erotic nature of his work. 

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Vintage Gay Couples


 

 






These photos are just a small fragment of our gay history; unfortunately so much of it has purposely been destroyed. Since most of the men and women in these photos are unknown, it's pretty much impossible to tell it they were a gay couple or just "good friends." Most photographs of gay couples were eventually destroyed by horrified family members. For every photo that I may have mistakenly identified as gay, thousands more were burned or torn into pieces to keep a family secret.

 If you enjoyed this collection of vintage photos, please subscribe to my Homo History blog. There are links at the top and very bottom of every page. If you are a long time subscriber, please resubscribe since the URL was just recently changed. 

We've just recently added a donate button; please help up us diversify our collection with your donations!

Thanks,
Jeffrey Gent

Friday, November 22, 2013

"My wife and I" A Revealing Postcard


 The inscription of the back of the photo-postcard is very interesting, don't you think? I thought this one was so great that it deserved it's own posting!

Please help me buy this one for the Homo History Collection: the "Donate Button" is at the top right of the page.

Thanks!
Jeffrey Gent

 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

A Gay Old Time!







 

 

 
 

 These photos are just a small fragment of our gay history; unfortunately so much of it has purposely been destroyed. Since most of the men and women in these photos are unknown, it's pretty much impossible to tell it they were a gay couple or just "good friends." Most photographs of gay couples were eventually destroyed by horrified family members. For every photo that I may have mistakenly identified as gay, thousands more were burned or torn into pieces to keep a family secret.

We've just recently added a Homo History Store stocked full of interesting books related to LGBT history!  We also added a donate button :)  The proceeds from your purchases, as well as your donations, help up us diversify our LGBT Photography Collection!

Thanks,
Jeffrey Gent

Hot Vintage Boxers from Hot Vintage Men


Here's a photo from the blog Hot Vintage Men that's unintentionally homo-erotic. I imagine that gay men of this period must have loved photos like this. Gay porn was extremely rare and only in the hands of wealthy collectors, but photos of handsome young athletes were easy to come by.

http://hotvintagemen.blogspot.com/2013/11/hot-vintage-boxers.html