Male Bonds in Nineteenth-Century Art

Edited by Thijs Dekeukeleire, Henk De Smaele, and Marjan Sterckx

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Edited volume - paperback

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.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

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

Format: Edited volume - paperback

Size: 230 × 170 × 16 mm

320 pages

ISBN: 9789462702813

Publication: January 10, 2022

Languages: English

Stock item number: 146007

Henk de Smaele is professor of history at the University of Antwerp.
Marjan Sterckx is associate professor of art history at Ghent University.
Thijs Dekeukeleire is an independent scholar who obtained his PhD in art history and history from Ghent University and the University of Antwerp.
This book makes an important contribution to the growing literature on homosociality and its representations in the modern era. It convincingly demonstrates that there were myriad kinds of bonds that connected male artists—familial, sexual, cultural, and otherwise—and that an exploration of these connections further illuminates the rich and complex art world of nineteenth-century Europe."
Heather Belnap, Brigham Young University

 
TAGS: Art, Art history, Edited volume - paperback, gender studies, homosociality, male sexuality, masculinities, masculinity studies, nineteenth century, painting, sculpture
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