Wilhelm von Gloeden

Wilhelm von Gloeden in 1891

Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden (September 16, 1856–February 16, 1931) was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys, which usually featured props such as wreaths or amphoras suggesting a setting in the Greece or Italy of antiquity. From a modern standpoint, his work is commendable due to his controlled use of lighting as well as the often elegant poses of his models. Innovative use of photographic filters and special body makeup contribute to the artistic perfection of his works.

Famous in his own day, his work was subsequently eclipsed for close to a century, only to re-emerge in recent times as "the most important gay visual artist of the pre–World War I era" according to Thomas Waugh.

Biography

Boy with Shawl
Wilhelm von Gloeden

Von Gloeden claimed to be minor German aristocrat from Mecklenburg. Suffering from what appears to have been tuberculosis, he came to Taormina in Sicily in 1876. He was wealthy, and also scrupulously shared the proceeds of his sales with his models, providing a considerable economic boost in this comparatively poor region of Italy, which might explain why the homosexual aspects of his life and work were generally tolerated by the locals.

The von Gloeden family insisted that his claim to The Barony von Gloeden was without warrant.

Attitudes towards his work during his lifetime and later

Von Gloeden generally made different kinds of photographs: The ones that garnered the most widespread attention in Europe and overseas were usually relatively chaste, featured clothes like togas and generally downplayed their homoerotic implications.

More explicit photos in which the boys were nude and which, because of eye contact or physical contact were more sexually suggestive were traded by the Baron "under the counter" to close friends.

Still, considering the prudish and homophobic atmosphere of the time, it is remarkable that von Gloeden and large parts of his work were generally accepted and respected. The popularity of his work in Germany, England, and America can possibly be attributed to four major reasons:

• He was a consummate and talented photographer.
• The Classical and painterly themes in which his work wreathed itself served as a cultural "badge of protection".
• At that time male-male-love "did not speak its name" and was thus totally unthinkable to many who saw his images.
• New printing technologies enabled the mass reproduction and sale of his work in postcard form.

In total the Baron took over 3,000 images, which after his death were left to one of his models, Pancrazio Buciunì, also known as Il Moro for his North African looks. Il Moro had been Von Gloeden's lover since the age of fourteen, when he had first joined the household of the Baron. In 1936, over 2,500 of the pictures were destroyed by Mussolini's police under the allegation that they constituted pornography. Most of the surviving images therefore come from private collections.

Other similar photographers at the time

Tomb of von Gloeden

Von Gloeden's cousin, Guglielmo Plüschow, similarly photographed male nudes in Rome, Italy. From an artistic standpoint, Plüschow's work is somewhat inferior to von Gloeden's as the lighting in Plüschow's works is often too harsh and the poses of the models look quite stilted.

It is worth noting that Plüschow was already a firmly established photographer when von Gloeden started doing photographs of his own in the early 1890s. It is even speculated that von Gloeden was taught the (then difficult) art of photography by Plüschow himself. However, von Gloeden soon eclipsed Plüschow, and later works by Plüschow were frequently erroneously attributed to von Gloeden.

Up until 1907, his assistant Vincenzo Galdi secretly made work which he tried to pass off as von Plüschow's own. However, Galdi's pictures lack elegance, often also feature females and generally tend to border on the pornographic.

Further reading

• Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856–1931). Kunsthalle Basel (1979) Exhibition catalog.

• 'Wilhelm Von Pluschow and Wilhelm Von Gloeden': Two Photo Essays. (IN: Studies in Visual Communications. Volume 9, Number 2, Spring 1983).

• Roger Peyrefitte: Les Amours Singulières (1949)

• Peter Weiermair: Wilhelm Von Gloeden: Erotic Photographs. Taschen Verlag (1994) ISBN 3-8228-9315-3
• Charles Leslie: "Wilhelm Von Gloeden Photograper. A Brief Introduction to His Life and Work". SoHo Photographic Publishers, New York, 1977. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 77-83146.

• Ulrich Pohlmann: Wilhelm von Gloeden: Taormina, München (Schirmer Mosel) 1998, ISBN 3-88814-474-4

See also

• The erotic male in photography

External links

• Biography and gallery of his work #1
• Biography and gallery of his work #2
• Another gallery
• Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856-1931). Bibliography and original documents, mostly in Italian.
• Template:Es Von Gloeden and his work