Photo Pest: Museum Saturdays with Chris & Thom

With Chris in town exploring the vibes of post-retirement residence in New York City, the Three Amigos spent several successive Saturdays taking advantage of its museum offerings.

Homoeroticism @ the New York Historical Society:

Sultry J. C. Leyendecker spent five decades depicting idealized beefcake on magazine covers--more than 350 for the Saturday Evening Post--and in print ads.

1874-1951

Although the exhibit at the Historical Society was small, the thrust was unmistakable. Look no further than below the tasseled belt in this Ivory soap ad!

He loved him some sailors, too.

"WWI American Sailor"

"In The Yale Boathouse" (1905)

The size of the exhibit left us plenty of time to peruse other items in the museum's soup-to-nuts collection. Currier and Ives did a much better job of depicting the Battle of Gettysburg than the re-enactment Thom an I attended in June.

Anthony Roth Costanzo wore this outfit on the New York Metropolitan Opera float during the last New York City Pride Parade before the pandemic. When theaters finally re-opened, his fabulous show at St. Ann's Warehouse with Justin Vivian Bond was the first that I saw.

If Tiffany lamps are your thing, this is the place to see too much of a good thing. Sometimes less is more, although they are beautifully displayed.

Another bicycle for my file. Imagine pedaling in that outfit, ladies.

Former Drug Dealers @ the Jewish Museum:

It's probably not how the curators of this superb exhibit would like you to think of the Sassoons, but as Chris observed as soon as we read about how the opium trade seeded the family's fortune: "Maybe there's hope yet for the Sacklers."

David Sassoon, the "Treasurer of Bagdhad" and family patriarch, was forced to flee his homeland in the early 19th century. He moved to India and China before his he and his descendants--known as the "Rothschilds of the East"--finally settled in England where their assiduous efforts at assimilation into polite society paid off handsomely. Beauty ran in the family and marrying bankers helped, of course. Shortly after wedding a German one, Rachel commissioned this lovely portrait but the other Sassoons disowned her after she converted from Judaism to Christianity.

Rachel Sassoon Beer by Henry Jones Thaddeus (1887)

This French Rothschild married into the Sassoon family and moved to London where she painted and ran with "The Souls," a group of "personages distinguished for their breeding, beauty, delicacy and discrimination of mind." Fun fact: Jack Huston, he of mutilated face in Boardwalk Empire, is her great-great grandson!

Aline de Rothschild, Lady Sassoon

Aline's daughter Sybil parlayed her money and looks into becoming a titled member of the British aristocracy. Cecil Beaton photographed the Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1930. I would not have wanted to announce her name at an event.

Rather than use their wealth to fund cultural institutions like the Sacklers, the Sassoons collected art. No surprise their tastes included Gainsborough. What painter was more representative of Britain's 18th century establishment?

Major John Dade of Tannington, Suffolk by Thomas Gainsborough (ca 1755)

But Phillip, son of Aline and brother of Sybil, clearly had an eye for the unusual, too, acquiring works depicting people with something other than peaches and cream complexions.

"Head of Billy" by Glyn Warren Philpot (1912-13)

"Head of a Capri Girl" by John Singer Sargent (1878)

The Sassoon men weren't bad to look at either. John Singer Sargent sketched Philip as a young man in 1912. He seems to have spent a lot of his time posing for portraits. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Only one of 25 Jews in his graduating class at Oxford, he served in World War I and trained as a pilot afterward, eventually becoming the Under Secretary of State for Air.

Sir Philip Sassoon by Philip de László (1915)

But more importantly, Philip, forever single and gay, managed to charm his way into the British aristocracy--including Edward VIII, whose abdication he supported--with house parties that evolved from the sybaritic to the discreet.

1922

Sir Philip Sasson by John Singer Sargent (1923)

Amateur painter Winston Churchill was among those luminaries who attended the latter before Philip's premature death of 50 which spared him the pain of World War II as well as the embarrassment of underestimating Hitler. The exhibit contrasts the future prime minister's talent with that of Sargent's.

Ruins of the Cathedral of St. Vaast, Arras, 1918 by Winston Churchill (1920s)

Well, yes, but could Sargent inspire nations with his speeches?

Ruined Cathedral at Arras by John Singer Sargent (1918)

Prior to this exhibit, Vidal and Siegfried were the only Sassoons I could name, and I knew more about the hairdresser than the writer. Here's Siegfried as a boy advertising his beloved Aunt Rachel's newspaper. Although his father had been disinherited for marrying outside the Jewish faith, Aunt Rachel (large portrait above) left him enough pounds sterling so that like his cousin Philip, he could buy his own country manor.

Young Siegfried Sassoon Dressed as a Page
by Thomas Ashby Flemons (1896)

Siegfried's mother plucked her son's first name from an opera, a favorite from Wagner's "Ring Cycle."

Siegfried Sassoon by Glyn Warren Philpot (1917)

Despite distinguished service in World War I, Sassoon was nearly court-martialed when he turned against it after losing his closest friend, with whom he may or may not have been having sexual relations. If there's a genetic component to queerness, it appears to run in the Sassoon family. Siegfried enjoyed relationships with men, including Ivor Novello and Stephen Tennant, whose rejection after six years together was quickly followed by marriage to a woman and the birth of a son. But after divorcing his wife, he came back into the fold and befriended both E.M. Forster and J.R. Ackerley.

ca 1916

The exhibit includes Siegfried's war journals which informed his highly acclaimed poetry and novels. More than anything else (except for perhaps the hair products!), they have established the family's legacy and erased the taint of the opium trade.