Thomas Eakins Day, Part One - The Great Outdoors

It's Thomas Eakins Day, and part one features outdoor photos, starting with this fellow who has been labeled as either Jesse Godley or Frank Stevens.  I'm not sure he's either of those two. but he seems more likely to be Frank, who appears in today's intermission.  See what y'all think.

 

Unknown

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Group with the Professor

This photo shows Prof. Eakins with J. Laurie Wallace (right) and an unknown.

I find the unknown fellow quite impressive.

 

Lanky

This lanky student seems to have stepped on a thorn.

That happens going barefoot in the brush.

 

Thomas Eakins Day, Intermission - Thomas, Harry, and Frank

For an intermission I'm posting two composites of anatomical studies along with a canine entry.  As noted earlier, Thomas Eakins was not at all shy about posing nude himself, and the photos above are only a few of a couple of dozen of studio poses of the maestro in the buff.

 

Harry and Friend

Above we have Thomas' Eakins dog Harry, and below we see Harry with another dog from the Eakins household.  I've seen them described as spaniels and setters, but either way they are find boys.

I featured a photo of the black one sleeping in a past series.

 

Frank Stevens

This is a composite I made of student Frank Stevens.

 

Thomas Eakins Day, Part Two - The Circle

Part two of our Thomas Eakins features items labeled as "Circle of Eakins" in most collections.  

There is some uncertainty as to whether these were done indepently by Mr. Eakins' students 

and associates or done under his supervision.  Either way, they have his imprint.  We start 

with an intersting and active scene.  Two of the three nude models out front are resting 

while the third seems to be taking a whack at something with a juggling club.  

Or perhaps he just walloped the guy falling back in the rear.

 

Expansive

This remarkably expansive photo shows a studio scene with three nude models, a clothed attendant amond the models, and three additional clothed men off to the left side.  Unfortunately, the photo is damaged, so I've broken it down into three parts which I individually enhanced with software below.

The nude model above seems to be sawing something.  Shades of Muybridge.

The central figure seems more muscular when enlarged and clarified.

The nude model above has a bit of a pot belly and looks older than the other models.

The clothed man is holding a rag and has something on a shoulder strap I can't make out.

Is he dressed as a soldier?  Or is he the helpful fluffer?

 

Two models, two views

Here we have two views of what I presume to be the same models during the same session.

 

 At first glance, I thought the young man at center had his hand on the other guys bottom.

A closer look proved otherwise, but it's still a rather interesting photo.

And there's the guy off to the side again holding that odd object.

Classical Sculptures

Today we will look at nine Classical sculptures and one that almost fooled me.

We start with an unknown Roman from the 2nd Century AD.

 

Tyrannicides

The Tyrannicides, 2nd century Roman copy of the mid 5th century BC Greek sculptural group depicting the Athenians, Harmodius and Aristogiton who killed the tyrant Hipparchus in 514 BC.

 

Mercury

This statue of Mercury is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

 

Hercules

Here are two rear views of Hercules and Cacus from the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.

 

Jupiter

This 1st Century A.D. bronze statuette of Jupiter is one of a number 

of copies of a Greek original from six centuries earlier.

He seems surprisingly human in scale and attitude.

 

General

The Midlands Historical Museum says that this is an unknown Roman general from the 2nd C. A.D.

 

Zeus

This is Zeus from the Dresden Museum.  Some details below:

 

Actaeon and his Hounds

Actaeon Attacked by His Hounds is a 2nd Century Roman work.

They're snapping awfully close to his package.  Oh, my.

 

Doryphoros

 This is a Roman copy of Polykleitos's Doryphoros.

 

And finally, a ringer

When I saw this photo of a statue in front of the Temple of Concordia, I thought, "Oh they 

found that statue buried nearby and set it up."  Well, it is actually a modern piece by Polish 

sculptor Igor Mitoraj.  I guess the full size package should have been the giveaway.

 

Roy Dean photographs Blain Lamoureaux

The June 1978 edition of Honcho magazine featured two photo spreads shot by Roy Dean.  One of them was of some rather unimpressive leather men, but the other was Canadian football player Blain Lamoureaux.  Extending over 11 pages, it was quite a project, so let's take a look.

 

Side and rear

I like the angle from which this shot was taken.

 

This might have been the centerfold, but not having the actual magazine, I can't be certain.
I don't like it when they repackage these with strip instead of a crease and some staples.

 

Page with text

This page late in the spread has some philosophical mumblings.  And speaking of philosophical stuff, when Mr. Lamoureaux's coach at the Calgary Stampeders heard he had posed nude for a gay magazine, he shrugged and said, "Guys used to go hunting and fishing in their spare time."  A Calgary gay history blog has an entry that said the Blain got fired for posing, but the coach's obituary and the fact that he played several more seasons seem to refute that.

 

In the ruins

Roy Dean used the ruin of a cabin to add a rustic touch to several photos in the shoot.

For those of you who can't easily enlarge this, I'll put the left hand part below.

I think Blain Lamoureaux may be standing on the ruins of the outhouse.

 

Spotted

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I posted a cropped version of this one without the text a few months ago, 

and it inspired me to look for more photos of Blain Lamoureaux.

 

A mountain stream in the Canadian Rockies doesn't upstage Mr. Lamoureaux.

An online archive helpfully provided the half version below.

 

Outtake?

Our last Roy Dean photo of Blain Lamoureaux is said by some to be an outtake from the Honcho photo session because it does not usually appear as part of the larger group.  Not that's it's very important, but if anyone has the June, 1978 issues or simply knows, please comment.