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A Gallery of Intact Penises in Art

5. Modern (post-photography)

 

 

Henry Holiday's working drawing for "The Landing" from "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll (1876) was presumably intended for his eyes only...

Henry Holiday's working drawing for the Bellman
Bellman's penis

...but the Bellman's penis is finely detailed.

''The Landing'' from ''The Hunting of the Snark''

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
   As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
   By a finger entwined in his hair.

 

Samuel Murray nude by Thomas Eakins Samuel Murray's penis by Thomas Eakins
Thomas Eakins'
photograph of
his close friend
Samuel Murray,
ostensibly for
artistic study.

 

Picasso early drawing

Picasso submitted this pencil drawing of a heavy-thighed man to enter the Barcelona School of Fine Arts in 1895 when he was 14.

 

Bacchanale by Picasso

A jovial minotaur and man in Picasso's 1933 "Bacchanale" share a post-coital drink.

Picasso's man's penis

The penis is drawn very simply.

Museum of Modern Art, New York

 

John Singer Sargent ''Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller'' Thomas McKellar's penis, by John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925)
may have detailed his model's
meatus peeping through the
preputial sphincter


John Singer Sargent
"Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller" (1917-1920)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund

Josef by Jergen Gudmundsen-Holmgreen Josef's penis
Jergen  Gundmundsen-Holmgreen's
Josef (1937-9) is normally proportioned
-  Statens Museum for Kunst / National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen
''Sultry Night'' by Grant Wood
''sultry night'''s penis The model for Grant Wood's 1939 "Sultry Night" is believed to be his friend Eric Knight (1897-1943), who later wrote "Lassie Come-Home". Wood (1891-1942) is best known for "American Gothic". This print could not go through the mail, so only 100 were made. He also painted this scene, but destroyed the left 1/3 after it was rejected by an international exhibition. 

The Vigeland Installation (opened 1940) in Frogner Park, Oslo, Norway, comprises 212 granite and bronze sculptures of nude human figures at all stages of life. All but a few of the male figures are shown as intact. The wrought-iron gates of the installation also portray nude figures
Father & daughter by Gustav Vigeland
Father's penis by Gustav Vigeland
- images from the blog of J Schaef, "Pull up a chair"
Father & daughter (both hands) by Gustav Vigeland
Father (both hands)'s penis by Gustav Vigeland

Gate to the Vigeland Installation Gate to the Vigeland Installation - old man
Young men's penises - Vigeland Installation gate Older man's penis, Vigeland Installation gate Old man's (cut?) penis, Vigeland Installation gate

Vigland's few cut men are generally older
Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943)

Adam's penis by Eric Gill

Despite the roughness
of the stone, Adam's
foreskin and
acroposthion are
clearly visible.

"Adam and Eve" by Eric Gill (1882-1940)

Dancer's penis by Eric Gill

Although Gill's dancers are
stylised and attenuated, the
man's penis and foreskin
are realistic and detailed.

''Dancers'' by Eric Gill

"Dancers" by Eric Gill

Self Portrait by Norman Lindsay Detail of Self Portrait by Norman Lindsay
Satyr's penis from Self Portrait by Norman Lindsay

Australian artist Norman Lindsay (1879-1969) seldom portrayed male nudes but it was this 1929 "Self Portrait", hunched between a satyr and a voluptuous woman, and especially the satyr's (generously foreskinned) penis, that got him into so much trouble he went to live in the USA in 1931.

 

Dali's ''Grasshopper Child''
Detail of Dali's ''Grasshopper Child''

Dali often used
sexual themes
and phallic images,
but seldom showed
an actual penis.
This one clearly details
a prominent
acroposthion.

Detail of penis in Dali's

Salvador Dali (1904-1989), Enfant Sauterelle
(Grasshopper Child), 1933
Etching and drypoint, Wadsworth Athenaeum
Gift of David Austin


Dali sculpture Dali sculpture's penis

While Dali was not much interested in the details of male anatomy (compared to, say, finger and toe joints), Newton's  cursory penis is nonetheless complete.
"Hommage a Newton" 1969, Espace Dali, Montmartre

 

''Oedipus'' by Keith Vaughan

''Oedipus'''s penis by Keith Vaughan

"Oedipus" (1933)
by Keith Vaughan (1912-1977)


Keith thought that the omens at his birth were auspicious: "Apart from being a healthy baby it was observed that my penis possessed a loose and easily retractable foreskin which was not considered necessary to circumcise according to the custom of my class. For this piece of good fortune I have had many occasions to be grateful."

- "Keith Vaughan: his life and work" (1990)
by Malcolm Yorke
London: Constable, p24

 

Click on the images for larger
Illustration to Genet's 'Querelle de Brest'' by Jean Cocteau
Illustration to Genet's 'Querelle de Brest''
drawing by Jean Cocteau 'Jeune Homme Nu'' by Jean Cocteau

"Jeune Homme Nu"
(He is clearly retracting his foreskin to wash it, and he isn't complaining about the tedium of that.)

 Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)

Escher's 'Mosaic 2'

guru from Escher's ''Mosaic 2''

guru's penis

M. C. Escher's intiguing etchings routinely show any nude males as intact, such as this Buddha-like figure (in Mosaic II, 1957) ...

Optimists and pessimists

Optimist

... and not only the optimists emerging from this frieze (Encounter, 1944)

Optimist's penis

but also, as Escher's working drawings show, ...

Pessimist

... the pessimists.

Pessimist's penis

 

Paul Cadmus ''Standing youth''

Paul Cadmus ''Standing Youth'' 's penis
Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) finely details his model's penises

Paul Cadmus ''Nude drawing''
Paul Camus ''Nude Drawing" detail

 

Frontage, Coventry Cathedral
"Victory of St Michael" (1958) 
Victory over the Devil by Sir Jacob Epstein
The postcards don't show you this:
The Devil, by Jacob Epstein The Devil's penis by Jacob Epstein, from below
The Devil's penis, by Jacob Epstein
Cathedral of St Michael, Coventry, UK
Epstein, being Jewish, would have little experience of foreskins and this (with its folds and lack of a  "spout" c.f. the fountain in the house of the Vetii), is not typical. He  frequently attracted controversy for his nude male sculptures. One, "Day", was allowed to remain on the St James Street Station,  London, only after he took 1.5" (4 cm) off its penis. This may explain a report that one of his statues was "circumcised".  His other work shows males as intact.
Rush of Green, by Sir Jacob Epstein
Man in Rush of Green's penis, by Sir Jacob Epstein "Rush of Green" (1959) , South Carriage Drive,  Kensington, London

Sir Jacob Epstein ( 1880-1959)



'The New Adam' by Harold Stevenson

"The New Adam" by Harold Stevenson is huge
(8' x 39', 2.44 m x 11.89 m)
wrapping around the viewer on nine panels.
The reference to Michaelangelo's is clear,
but this is no boy.
The model was Sal Mineo

'The New Adam''s penis

the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York

 

Hockney's illustration to Cavafy

Hockney penis

David Hockney's 1967 illustration to C P Cavafy's poems stresses line, rather than shading, giving a flat look to the model's penis, though the sulcus and acroposthion are indicated.

 

Male nude by Francisco Lòpez

Lòpez nude's penis

Conversely Francisco Lòpez's 1973 nude torso is finely shaded, emphasising the penis' dorsal vein.

 

''Archoiochos Alone'' by Michael Ayrton

Archilochos' penis

"Archilochos Alone"
by Michael Ayrton
(1921-1975)


''Poseidon's gifts'' by Michael Ayrton


Poseidon's penis

"Poseidon's Gifts"
Poseidon's raphe and
acroposthion can be
clearly seen.

 

''Richard'' by Kitaj

Richard's penis

"Actor (Richard)", painted in 1979
by R. B. Kitaj, has a "peeper",
a shorter than average foreskin.

 

Jesus' penis on Sagrada Familia 1 Jesus on Sagrada Familia

Josep Maria
Subirachs, 1987

Jesus' penis on Sagrada Familia 2

The crucified Jesus on the "Passion" façade of Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, is intact,
probably not to deny his Jewishness, but because the sculptor and the audience could not
imagine him being different from themselves. (Another famous nude Jesus,
by Michelangelo, is in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome, but his penis has been vandalised
and is now covered. It was almost certainly portrayed as intact.)

 

While the character of Gollum in the film of The Lord of the Rings is almost entirely computer-generated and wears a tiny loincloth that doesn't seem to hide much, oversized models were used by Weta Workshops to help make him so lifelike, and a picture of one in Cinefex magazine shows the artists conceived him as intact, as is a maquette of the Cave Troll in the Lord of the Rings exhibition - as of course they should be (but it wouldn't be so certain if they were made in the US).

Picture to come.

 

Kaiserbruendl mural
Penis in Kaiserbruendl mural

Mural in the Kaiserbruendl sauna, Vienna,
by Stefan Riedl (Genannt Triebl), one of several
that all (of course) portray intact men.


 


English artist John Carter
(1927-2004) takes
intactness for granted
in his Big Catch

 

'Reclining Middle-Aged 'Man'' by John Willcocks

Reclining Middle-Aged Man's penis

This "Reclining Middle-Aged Man"
by John Willcocks (1934-2021)
has a clearly delineated peeper.

James Gleeson ''Prometheus and the Wanderer variation'' James Gleeson's 'Prometheus and the Wanderer variationI'' 's penis James Gleeson "Figure in a Psychoscape"
Prometheus and the Wanderer Variation 23
Figure in a Psychoscape
James Gleeson's "Figure in a Psychoscape"'s penis

Australian James Gleeson painted both intact and cut men in surrealistic settings ("Psychoscapes"),
apparently based on the models' own anatomy, even in mythological subjects.
Male genital cutting was in decline in Australia during this period, the 1950s-60s

- James Gleeson (1915-2008)
Pierre et Giles' ''Matador Fernando Leonne''
Pierre et Gilles's matador's penis
Pierre (Commoy, 1950- ,
photographer) et Gilles
(Blanchard, 1953-, painter)
create highly processed
images, mainly of erotic male
and/or religious subjects.
Their "Matador (Fernando Leonne)"
(1999) sold at Christie's
to a private collector in 2011
for €37,000
(€41,136 in 2021 or $US46,554)
but in 2015 it sold again for only
£18,750 (£20,539 in 2021 or $US27,248)
 

One of Angela's Men

Angela's Men is a gallery
of treated photographs
of intact men, many closeups.
Treatment is commonly a metallic finish,
such as copper.

 

Painting by Paul Davis Jones

Paul Davis Jones of Phildelphia has painted a series
of extreme closeups of foreskins,
"the Intact Project", coloured to give an abstract, rose-like effect.
He writes,
"AS EACH FORM EMERGED ON THE CANVAS,
THE JOY OF CREATION BECAME ANGER
AS I ASKED MYSELF WHY ANYONE
WOULD CHOOSE TO DESTROY THIS UNIQUE
AND BEAUTIFUL PART OF A MALE'S BODY.
"

 

Most of this sequence - the previous five pages - has been turned into a slide show with music.

 

Jonathan Yeo painted two portraits of entrepreneur Ivan Massow three months apart, during which Massow lost three stone (19 kg) and grew a beard.

Jonathan Yeo's first portrait of Ivan Massow

Jonathan Yeo's second portrait of Ivan Massow

Ivan Massow's penis

Ivan Massow's penis, three months later

 

In his book "Uncut: the natural history of the foreskin", Sherwin Carlquist includes a sequence of Annie Liebowitz-like portraits of intact penises in natural settings.

Foreskin and roses, by Sherwin Carlquist

Foreskin and driftwood, by Sherwin Carlquist

Foreskin and clam, by Sherwin Carlquist

 

Portrait by Dylan Ricci

Penis of Dylan Ricci model

Photographer Dylan Ricci
likes to partially
conceal his models'
faces and genitals.

 

'Solace in the Wind' by Max Patte

Penis of Patte statue

Max Patte's oxidised steel
"Solace in the Wind" stands
on the Wellington, NZ, waterfront.
Though undetailed, his penis shows
a corona covered by a foreskin

 

Redemption Song Monument Redemption Song Monument penis

"Redemption Song" by Laura Lacey stands 3.3m (11 feet) tall in Emancipation Park,
Kingston, Jamaica.

 

Event Horizon by Antony Gormley, Madison Sq. NY Event Horizon's penis

"Event Horizon" by British artist Antony Gormley consists of four cast-iron and 27 fibreglass casts 
of his own nude body, placed at ground level and poised on the edges of buildings.
It was exhibited in London in 2007 and in New York in 2010.
It may have taught the young man in the green sweater something he won't learn
at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Anthony Gormley ''Lost Horizon 1''
Antony Gormley ''Lost Horizone 1'' detail Anthony Gormley ''Lost Horizon 1'' penis
Lost Horizon I in the Royal Academy of Arts, London,  features 24 cast iron images (possibly from the same mould as ''Event Horizon'') of Gormley's own body. The London audience finds nothing exceptional about their intactness.

 

Fallen Angel by Igor Mitoraj
Fallen Angel's penis by Igor Mitoraj "Fallen Angel", Temple of Concordia, Sicily
''Bllindfolded Icarus'' by Igor Mitoraj ''Blindfolded Icarus'''penis by Igor Mitoraj
"Blindfolded Icarus"
Polish-German artist Igor Mitoraj creates oversized mutilated
torsoes in classical style, but the males are in modern proportions.

 

Terra-cotta piece by Michael Dulin

Maryland artist Michael Dulin uses terra cotta to illustrate the beauty of the intact penis.

Philip Gladstone "Lightning Strike"
Philip Gladstone "Lighting Strike"'s penis "Lightning Strike"
2015
Untitled
(reclining male nude)
2015
Philip Gladstone "Reclining Male Nude"'s penis
Philip Gladsstone "untitled (Reclining Male Nude)"
Philip Gladstone "Be A Man"' penis

"The Lesson (How To Be
A Man)"
2017
Philip Gladstone "How To Be A Man"

PHilip Gladstone: ''Shattered" Philip Gladstone ''Shattered" detail

"Shatttered" (2018)
Philip Gladstone ''Shattered" detail


Philip Gladstone of Maine (1963- ) paints and draws largely allegories and self-portraits,
frequently nude and always intact.

 

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