Vintage Muscle Men

Monday, July 20, 2026

Thomas Eakins Day

It's been too long since I featured the pioneering work of Thomas Eakins, so let's start

with three poses of the man that show he was willing to be photographed nude himself.

Circle of Eakins

Over the years I've posted a number of photos attributed to "Circle of Eakins." Curators are not in agreement as to just how involved Thomas Eakins was in this group of over a dozen photos,

but it is certain that he heavily influenced them whether he took them all or not.

Here we see a sort of modified conga line in the studio.

J. Laurie Wallace and Friend

I think that's J. Wallace Laurie on the right with an unknown fellow student.

Tug of War

Thomas Eakins frequently took his students on outings where they engaged

in various activities nude. The photo above shows detail from a tug of war.

Above we have a fairly standard Thomas Eakins panel of assorted poses by student Jesse Godley. Below, we have a Marey Wheel image by Mr. Eakins of Mr. Godley walking. I've mentioned in previous series that Thomas Eakins and Muybridge knew each other and collaborated to a limited extent on motion studies. This is an example of shared methodology with that other pioneer of moving pictures, Frenchman Jules Marey.

Three male nudes

This is another of those "circle of Thomas Eakins" attributions, and a quite interesting one.

We get a nice arrangement of a trio of nude student models, plus there

are at least four clothed men looking on in the background.

Swimming Hole

This photo study for The Swimming Hole painting is quite different

from the one closest to the final version, but it's still worth a look.

Platform

I don't know what the purpose of the platform was originally, but Thomas Eakins and his students

used it on one of their outings to make three photos, two of which I previously posted.

Beach

I've posted at least one different pose of these two men on a beach, but I especially like this one

because we can actually see chest hair (and a happy trail) in a 19th C. photo, something rare.

Charles Bregler

Finishing with an Eakins photo of Charles Bregler, a student who went on to a moderately successful career as a portraitist, but is best known for having collected a large body of Thomas Eakins' work, journals, and notes. The collection is now at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The photo above is a likely reference to Flandrin, and below we see Mr. Bregler in his studio, 1995.

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Nudist Refreshment

Today's theme is nudists having refreshments, and we start with a really odd page from a magazine. Swallows was a well known nudist camp/resort in the 1960s, and whoever published this pirated the Coca Cola logo and the term "Coke." Both were trademarked at the time, and they only bothered to change the red disc emblem a littl. Lucky they didn't get sued.