Franz von Stuck II

Today will be the second full series I have done on the work of Franz von Stuck (1863-1926), a German artist who was quite versatile in terms of media and style.  He is best known for paintings and drawings, but he also was a very good sculptor, furniture designer, and poster artist.  He also did book illustrations and a line of greeting cards.  His home, Villa von Stuck, was furnished from top to bottom with items he designed ranging from place mats to tapestries to curtains and carpets.  He was also not above getting naked and having some fun, as shown above.  You have to love this guy.

 

Adam and Eve, Two Takes

Snakes entwined with women (and sometimes men) are a recurrent theme in Franz von Stuck's work.  Obviously, he wasn't about to let the Adam and Eve biblical fairy tale pass him by.  Above, we have his 1920 painted version, and below, an 1893 relief sculpture.  Eve is pretty much the same in both,

but we get two very different versions of Adam.

 

Aktaeon

1926 was the date for Aktaeon, Man with Spear.

 

Athlete . . . or Atlas?

On the relatively rare occasions when von Stuck sculpted, he was very good at it.  This post includes three views of The Athlete, which some observers have described as a different take on Atlas.

We start with a very well formed derriere view.

This version of a frontal view is OK, but the one below is better.

 

Spring Procession?

This is clearly labeled Spring Procession in a book of Franz von Stuck's work, but I can't find a painting by that name (in either English or German) anywhere.  The only thing even close was a work called Bacchanalian Procession, and it does not have a male even vaguely resembling this.  

Having said all that, I find it to be a perfectly fine stand alone work of art.

 

Orpheus

This is Orpheus from 1891, and it made Franz von Stuck prominent in the Art Nouveau movement.

 

Study - Struggle for Women

After having previously posted the painting The Struggle for Women, I found this study for it.

I have to say I like it much better than the finished work shown again below.

 

Prometheus

Franz von Stuck painted Prometheus in 1926, and it reminds me in some ways of the work of Sasha Schneider.  Von Stuck seems to have greatly perferred Classical over Biblical themes in his work.

 

Study for Bacchanal

This 1903 drawing was a study for the painting Bacchanal.

 

Not academic

While this looks like typical 19th C. academic work, it is part of a collection of 20th C. studies that Franz von Stuck did for paintings.  Many of those only vaguely resemble the finished works, and the curators of the website where I found this charcoal drawing did not reference a painting.

 

Jack Mitchell Day

It's Jack Mitchell day, and we start the set with Robert La Tourneaux from 1970.

He played Cowboy in Boys in the Band, and sadly, he died of AIDS in 1986.

 

Mikel Peters

Although his hair is longer and lighter than in other photos,

this is model Mikel Peters from 1971.

 

Luis Rivera

Dancer Luis Rivera posed for Jack Mitchell in this undated photo.

 

Giancarlo Giannini

Although the focus of this blog is his male nudes, Jack Mitchell did some fine portrait work.

This sultry 1976 photo of Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini is a good example.

 

Curly Top

This one came with no info whatsoever, other than being by Jack Mitchell.

It might, however, be a rear view of Robert Lz Tourneaux.

 

Brahm

This handsome model is sometimes shown as Brahm and other times as Braham.

I'm sure he had more of a name than that, but I haven't been able to find it.

 

Kirk Peterson

Although my source didn't say so, I get the feeling that 

Kirk Peterson was a dancer.  The photo is from 1974.

 

Christian Holder

This is Joffrey Ballet dancer Christian Holder in a picture used in a 1970 edition of After Dark.

 

Unknown

Our last image in the Jack Mitchell set is an unknown from 1971.

 

Physical Men 1880-1920

In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, an early wave of physical culture swept the world.  Today we will look at some wrestlers, boxers, and strong men from that era.  Our first image is the only unknown in today's series, and it's the April 1907 cover of Physical Culture.

 

Jenkins

Tom Jenkins was a three time American wrestling champion who lost his title to Frank Gotch 

who appears in the next post in this series.  Mr. Jenkins also lost to Georg Hackenschmidt 

when he went after the world title.  Despite this, his career was considered very successful, 

and he went on to become a revered coach, mentor, and teacher.

 

Gotch

The first American to win the freestyle wrestling world championship, he defeated Georg Hackenschmidt (shown later in today's series) in 1908. The Hackenschmidt match was widely described has having been stolen by Gotch via fouls ignored by the referee.  He died at age 40 in 1917, allegedly of syphillis, athough the coroner said it was uremic poisoning.

 

Jeffries

Jim Jeffries won the world heavyweight boxing championship in 1899.

The photo above is from 1910 when he lost to Jack Johnson.

 

Aberg and Lurich

Alexander Aberg (above) and Georg Lurich were Baltic Germans who were well known in pre-World War I wrestling circles, touring the world together.  Caught up in the chaos of the Russian Revolution, they died of disease within weeks of each other in Southern Russia while trying to get to the West.

The townspeople buried them together in the same grave in a German cemetery.

 

Kop

When I do this sort of series, I often do a few searches to see if anything new has shown up online.  This time, I discovered Petar Kop, a Serbian wrestler who worked mainly in the Balkans.

 

Kryloff

Although he did occasionally wrestle, Russian Piotr Kryloff was best known as a stong man 

performer who broke chains, juggled 100 pound kettle bells, and pulled apart horseshoes.

 

Hackenschmidt

Here we see Georg Hackenschmidt in early middle age.  He continued 

to wrestle, operate a gym, and maintain his physique well into his 50s.

 

Jankowski

Ursus "Bear" Piotr Jankowski was an early 20th C. Polish wrestler who won 

championships in his native land, Russia, Turkestan, and the Caucasus.  

Whoever took the photo at right spelled his name wrong.

 

Muldoon

Our last post of the day is William Muldoon, the 1880 World Champion of Graeco-Roman style wrestling.  This photo was said to have been made at the peak of his physical development.