Male Bonds in Nineteenth-Century Art

Masculinities in nineteenth-century art through the lens of gender and queer history
Male bonds were omnipresent in nineteenth-century European artistic scenes, impacting the creation, presentation, and reception of art in decisive ways. Men’s lives and careers bore the marks of their relations with other men. Yet, such male bonds are seldom acknowledged for what they are: gendered and historically determined social constructs. This volume shines a critical light on male homosociality in the arts of the long nineteenth century by combining art history with the insights of gender and queer history. From this interdisciplinary perspective, the contributing authors present case studies of men’s relationships in a variety of contexts, which range from the Hungarian Reform Age to the Belgian fin de siècle. As a whole, the book offers a historicizing survey of the male bonds that underpinned nineteenth-century art and a thought-provoking reflection on its theoretical and methodological implications.

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Introduction
Thijs Dekeukeleire, Marjan Sterckx, Henk de Smaele
Bonds, bounds, and beyond Dalou’s monument to fraternity, and homosociality in nineteenth-century art Thijs Dekeukeleire, Henk de Smaele
Part I: Familial bonds: Mediating masculine intimacy
“Les Stevens!” Masculine bonds in a nineteenth-century artistic family
Tom Verschaffel
Brothers-in-law of the brush The domestic dramas of Edouard Vuillard and Ker-Xavier Roussel
Rachel Sloan
The prodigal son revisited Male bodies and bonds in two fin de siecle sculptures by Constantin Meunier and George Minne Marjan Sterckx
Part II: Coercive bonds: Disciplining the male body
Alliances of virtue Hungarian (self-)Reformers and their (self-)representation at the Diet in Pressburg (1825–1827) Eva Bicskei
Bazille, painter-Zouave Friendship and duty at the dawn of the Franco-Prussian War
Mary Manning
Undressing the army Hygiene and hierarchies in Eugene Chaperon’s The Shower in the Regiment (1887)
Sean Kramer
Part III: Covert bonds: Queering the nineteenth-century man
Raphael, Jonah, and Antinoüs Problems of male beauty and sexuality on the grand tour
Crawford Alexander Mann III
Mystical manhood Whirling dervishes in the Orientalist imaginary
Brigid M. Boyle
Men and models of the city Eugene Jansson’s nudes
Patrik Steorn
Part IV: Forged bonds: Competing for each other’s attention
Dressing the part Male bonding “on the motif ” in nineteenth-century France
Anthea Callen
Everybody’s darling Loie Fuller in service of male homosocial avant-garde identity
Thomas Moser
The struggle is real The wrestling groups of the antagonist sculptors Lambeaux and Van der Stappen
Thijs Dekeukeleire

Thijs Dekeukeleire

Thijs Dekeukeleire is an independent scholar who obtained his PhD in art history and history from Ghent University and the University of Antwerp.

Henk De Smaele

Henk de Smaele is professor of history at the University of Antwerp.

Marjan Sterckx

Marjan Sterckx is associate professor of art history at Ghent University.