Male Nude, Draped by John Singer Sargent, c. 1900.Sargent (1856-1925) exhibited very few works with
Male Nude, Draped by John Singer Sargent, c. 1900.Sargent (1856-1925) exhibited very few works with overtly sensual themes during his career. He did, however, keep an album of private drawings of nude men. The images were not highly regarded by the Harvard museum which received them as a bequest from Sargent’s family. Scholar Trevor Fairbrother “rediscovered” the albums in 1981, though some of the drawings would remain unpublished for another 20 years.A sense that someone’s art has homoerotic qualities is not by itself proof of sexual orientation. Sargent never married. He had long-term friendships with men or women. He was a private person whose letters and personal reflections were destroyed shortly after his death.Although most people seem to have preferences among genders (male, female and more) when seeking partners, I hope that doesn’t preclude an ability to see sensuality outside of orientation. Tumblr blogs which feature versions of the same kind of body (usually white and skinny) over and over again disinterest me (and I dislike the reinforcement of stereotypes) but I also feel a kind of pity for anyone who has such a narrow view of beauty. What if you only liked one kind of food? Lasagna is a marvel but I’d get tired of eating it every night.Returning to Sargent, if he made great apple pies but preferred to eat carrot cake, does that make either dessert any less scrumptious? -- source link
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