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Glyn Philpot (1884-1937)

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made a name for himself in Great Britain in 1910s and 1920s

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fasionable society portrait painter

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as art student became fascinated with painting by Italian Renaissance painters

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Titian (1488-1576)

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Paolo Veronese (1538-1588)

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Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506)

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Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543)

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depth of contstruction and subtle palette

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somber authority

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subtleties of applying glazes over underpainting to build up richness and texture

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1906, "we shouldn't strike out methods of our own"

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1909, public reputation cemented with The Manuelito

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1910 exhibition of the Modern Society of Portrait Painters

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entered the world of London society

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1920s

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a dozen major portrait commissions per year

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leading figures within British royalty and society

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Sir Banister Flight Fletcher, architect

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Sir Oswald Mosley, found of British Union of Fascists

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John Henry Whitley, Speaker of the House of Commons

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dubbed the Beau Brummell of painting

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1778-1840, iconic figure in Regency England and for many years the arbiter of men's fashion

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personal category of portraiture

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found constant relaxation from the rigueur and forced politesse of portrait painting

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devoted almost exclusively to male subjects

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youthful optimism of callow young men

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callow, adj. inexperienced and immature

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jaded charm of broken-nose boxers

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male African and African American sitters

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only his sister Daisy were privy to his private artworks

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homosexuality

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maintained an extensive network of homosexual friends and acquaintances

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Robert Ross (1869-1918) Canadian journalist, art critic and art dealer

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early lover of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

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open homosexuality

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Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) and Charles Shannon (1863-1937)

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one of the great gay couples of British art

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Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939)

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homosexual art collector

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late 1920s

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friends were worried that Philpot's art was becoming too indiscreet for comfort

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1931

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forced to confront many contradictions his art presents

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politically dangerous and sexually charged world

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traveling to Berlin affected him profoundly

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decadent nightlife

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grimly satiric art

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George Grosz (1893-1959)

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Otto Dix (1891-1969)

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Paris

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glass studio apartment

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reinvent himself

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engaged with Picasso, surrealism

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explored the erotically heightened milieus of the modern metropolis

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his art was changing as much as his personal life

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lilacs and blues

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1932

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Leicester Galleries in London

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decadent Berlin night life

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intimations of a sexual fluidity

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flaunted his hitherto unspoken homosexuality

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new modes of expression are continually necessary

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Scotsman Newspaper: "Glyn Philpot Goes Picasso"

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portrait commissions dried up

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increasingly beset financial problems

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Thomas Craven (1888-1969)

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American art critic from Kansas

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anti-modernist and homophobe

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1934 Modern Art, railed against the perceived decorative nature of modern art

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the artist is losing his masculinity

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two sexes are being merged into an androgynous third

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Picasso is the most offensive element in modern art

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Oedipus, 1932

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today: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

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strangely nubile and scantily clad Oedipus figure

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nubile, adj. (of a girl or woman) sexually attractive

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primative looking features

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strong echoes of Oscar Wilde's tomb in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, 20th arrondissement

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powerful grip on the painting's Oedipus figure

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encapsulates the artist's struggle at this time with his sexuality

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this was the artistic equivalent of coming out

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suddenly Philpott's art no longer looked masculine or reassuringly old-masterish

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it seemed feminized, or emasculated, to use Craven's term