GLR March-April 2023

poses of famous statues and incarnated mythological heroes. In the portrait, Courtois lightens Deriaz’ skin and com pletely removes the chest hair that’s visible in photographs of the wrestler, thereby transforming him into a statue. This cosmetic tactic was often used by models at the time, going as far as to re move hair from armpits, chests, and pubic areas, or even the whole body, as well as oiling the skin. The classical ve neer allowed the models to appear to embody æsthetic ideals rather than erotic intentions, yet the possibility of the latter was always at the viewer’s discretion. It remains difficult to determine whether the relationship between Courtois and Deriaz remained strictly professional. A recently discovered 1910 photograph of Courtois standing

letes. These photographs were at times combined into collages and presented as part of bodybuilding competitions for amateur readers, accompanied by vital statistics of the contestants. From our vantage point, these collages eerily resemble modern-day dating apps— Grindr avant la lettre —with body pics and stats. A young Maurice G. from Franconville, for instance, submitted his picture along with a letter, pub lished in the November 1904 issue, in which he detailed his “stats,” including his height, weight, waist size, and age. For other readers living in his area, it wouldn’t have been difficult to recog nize Maurice G. as the subject featured in the magazine. These “selfies,” in turn, mirrored Courtois’ portrait, es tablishing a wider unspoken network of those “in the know” who were con nected through the figure of Maurice Deriaz as displayed in the pages of La Culture Physique . Courtois’ portrait also references the “classicizing” mania brought about by the physical culture fad. By that I mean the quoting of classical sculptures to justify the new masculine val ues associated with national virility as inscribed in a muscular body. Athletes posing in the magazine usually recreated the

Photograph of Courtois dedicated to Deriaz, 1910.

next to Deriaz’ portrait is dedicated to the strongman in the fol lowing way: “To Maurice de Riaz, a souvenir of his painter and friend, Gustave Courtois.” It is telling that the artist chose to call him “friend” and to stage a photograph with erotic under currents. The pose of the artist is suggestive of sexual prowess, the phallic maulstick pressed firmly against the pelvic girdle, creating a bulge in the front of the pants and directing the gaze of the recipient of the photograph—in this instance, Deriaz— toward the crotch. Furthermore, Courtois deliberately chooses to stand between the portrait of Maurice on his right and a lost work of 1904 representing Apollo playing the lyre on his left. As we know, Apollo’s exploits include many forays into same sex love. Hidden from view by Courtois’ body is an image of a young boy playing the flute, perhaps an allusion to Cyparis sus, the beloved of Apollo. Given the 33-year age difference between Courtois and Deriaz and the positioning of the paint ings, the “unspeakable” vice of the Greeks inhabits the staging of the photograph. Whatever the nature of their relationship, the 1907 portrait of Maurice Deriaz certainly raises questions about the representa tion of the male figure in art and its homoerotic—if not outright homosexual—potential when placed in the context of the phys ical culture fad of the period and Courtois’ known proclivities to ward men. Courtois offers the viewer—who was assumed to be male in the times—a delectable portrait to be consumed either for its æsthetic or erotic content, recognizably similar to the im ages in La Culture Physique magazine. It is precisely its ambi guity in this respect that could produce a state of “homosexual panic” like the one experienced by the art critics quoted at the top of this article. By redefining and repackaging the image of Maurice Deriaz, Courtois transgressed the accepted boundaries between licit and illicit forms of visual pleasure and sexuality. It’s high time that we rediscover the works of this forgotten painter and re-evaluate his output within the context of mas culinity and queer studies. In the meantime, we can continue to appreciate the immortalized beauty of Maurice Deriaz captured in this stunning portrait by Gustave Courtois both as an æsthetic object and a seductive work of art.

The G & LR

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