In einem Moment der Besinnung - eight portraits by Franz Eybl

 

Dame in blauem Kleid, 1839.

Johann Josef Rudolf von Arthaber, the elder son of Rudolf von Arthaber, 1845. **

 Porträt einer älteren Dame mit Spitzenhaube und rosa Bändern, 1849.

 Bildnis eines Knaben, 1845.

 Anna Mannsfeld, née Mayer, 1837.

Der Maler Franz Wipplinger, das Miniaturporträt seiner verstorbenen Schwester betrachtend, 1833.

This painting within a painting is, as the title states, a portrait of Wipplinger's late sister.

 Damenbildnis, circa 1830-1840.

Sitzender Armenier, 1831.

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Franz Eybl (1 April 1806, Vienna - 29 April 1880, Vienna), Austrian painter. Born in the Viennese suburb of Gumpendorf, by 1816, at the age of ten, he had already entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, studying under Josef Klieber and Josef Mössmer. Between 1820 and 1823 he studied under Johann Baptist von Lampi and Franz Caucig, reproducing antique statues and casts. Until 1828 he studied history painting under Johann Peter Krafft, and in 1825 he won the Academy's Gundel-Prize, followed in 1828 by the Lampi Prize. He married in 1830 and, thirteen years later, became a member of the Academy. After 1840 his work was much influenced by that of Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. He devoted himself to landscape painting, genre works, and history painting, also producing more than four hundred lithographic portraits. But he is now best remembered as one of the most important portrait painters of nineteenth century Austria, alongside Friedrich von Amerling and Waldmüller. He died at the age of seventy-four and was buried at Vienna's famous Zentralfriedhof among the graves of such notable figure as Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert.

Self-portrait, 1840.

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** Eight years earlier, Johann Josef Rudolf von Arthaber featured in Amerling's celebrated portrait of merchant and art collector Rudolf von Arthaber and his three children, the family posed with a portrait of Arthaber's deceased wife, the children's mother. Young Rudolf is shown seated in the foreground at his father's feet; his two younger siblings were Emilie and Gustav.

Rudolf von Arthaber und seine Kinder Rudolf, Emilie und Gustav betrachten das Porträt ihrer toten Mutter, 1837.

La femenina más elegante - evening gown by Julia Virac, circa 1910-15

 

Silk taffeta, silk chiffon, and glass beading. In the collection of the Museo del Traje, Madrid.

I've found next to nothing about the dressmaker Julia Virac. Apparently she was one of the leading figures of Madrid fashion at the beginning of the twentieth century and was an official purveyor to the royal Spanish house. This gown of her creation reflects the influence of the great contemporary Parisian couturiers, the likes of Paquin and Poiret, whose own work featured, as here, a higher waistline and slimmer silhouette. But it also exemplifies the refinement and technical expertise for which, in the coming decades, designers of Spanish haute couture would become so well known.

Gentlemen friends - two by two in vintage photographs

 

Artsists Aleksander and Maksymilian Gierymski posing for a preparatory photograph wearing historical costume. 

Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

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Friends, brothers, co-workers, and sometimes - rarely - even lovers. Many of these are the sort of vintage images frequently shared on social media with claims to be examples of same-sex relationships in the past, proof that "we've always been here", as if any half-sane individual could really argue against that point. But, while I'd love to think that these are indeed a record of men involved in loving and/or sexual partnerships, I can't allow myself to imagine that all but the rarest are. Even the images that appear to be overtly romantic or sexual were almost always posed as a display of racy humor rather than with the intent to make a very public record of genuine affections and implied activities that could never have been made public at all. What I feel confident they do record is the comfort men felt with same-sex physical contact before definitions of sexuality and ideas of appropriate masculine behavior became so rigidly codified, before displays of affection between men became so frowned upon. At any rate, I'm totally good without knowing anything of the particular relationships captured in the pictures shared here. I don't even feel compelled to imagine anything of their stories; for me, the images suffice.