13 to 24 of 26
Felix Jacques Antoine Moulin - Semi-nude Woman at a Water Fountain
Felix Jacques Antoine Moulin
Semi-nude Woman at a Water Fountain
$2,000
Auguste Pierre Delbet - Female Nude Study in the Studio (Sitting)
Auguste Pierre Delbet
Female Nude Study in the Studio (Sitting)
$500
Auguste Pierre Delbet - Female Nude Study in the Studio (Standing)
Auguste Pierre Delbet
Female Nude Study in the Studio (Standing)
$400
Auguste Pierre Delbet - Female Nude Study in the Studio (Seated)
Auguste Pierre Delbet
Female Nude Study in the Studio (Seated)
$300
Auguste Pierre Delbet - Female Nude Study in the Studio (Standing)
Auguste Pierre Delbet
Female Nude Study in the Studio (Standing)
$300
Anonymous - Unidentified Actress Lying Provocatively on a Settee
Anonymous
Unidentified Actress Lying Provocatively on a Settee
$8,000
Charles I. Berg - Magdalen
Charles I. Berg
Magdalen
$250
Anonymous - Partially Nude Bantu Woman Balancing a Water Gourd on Her Head
Anonymous
Partially Nude Bantu Woman Balancing a Water Gourd on Her Head
$450
Anonymous - Two Unclothed Women Toasting Each Other
Anonymous
Two Unclothed Women Toasting Each Other
$150
Anonymous (possibly August Belloc) - Female in Negligee Taking off Her Stockings
Anonymous (possibly August Belloc)
Female in Negligee Taking off Her Stockings
$250
Anonymous - Woman in Flimsy Negligee
Anonymous
Woman in Flimsy Negligee
$75
Anonymous - Nude Couple Making Love
Anonymous
Nude Couple Making Love
$350
By Matt Damsker

Nude by Auguste Belloc

There is very little that is new under the sun, so it stands to reason that erotic photography flourished in the 19th century as an early passion of the first generation of photographers. From posed studio nudes to the exotic naturalism of nude Africans unselfconsciously attending to the chores of tribal life, much of this vintage eroticism is either Pictorialist or documentarian in nature, and a good many of its photographers remain anonymous. But there is no denying the daring ambition and, often, the elegance of the medium's earliest purveyors of erotica.

At the same time, the camera was an inevitable accomplice in a new era of pornography, and there are anonymous images of men and women sexually cavorting, though the photos that survive tend to be less explicit than we have come to expect.

In this exhibit, many photographs tend toward the studied and serenely Victorian, with female nudes demurely posed. Whether in lingerie or haughtily contextualized in a boudoir, these nudes are early exemplars of the male gaze, displayed as sexual trophies and objectified as the only the camera can. It would not be too long before Picasso’'s modernist paintings would fracture the planes of traditional nudity, but in the meantime 19th-century photographers were breaking ground well enough on their own.

Thus, the likes of Pierre (Auguste) Delbet, Felix Moulin, and Emile Reutlinger staged their nudes as statuesque players in a carefully lit and furnished theater of classical grace and gesture. The erotic purpose of such studio work is apparent, yet the determined artistry of the photographers, who were pushing the bounds of propriety in a new medium, is equally evident.

The quality of many of these images--as compositions of human expressiveness and experiments in suggestive lighting and formal ambition--is high. At their best, these early photographers were seeking to meet such classical inspirations as the Venus de Milo or Michelangelo’s sculpture on equal ground. The irony is that the camera has always had a harder time idealizing the human form, in all its realism and naturalism, than the original plastic arts were able to do before photography joined them. But these early images certainly set a standard for erotic display that endures. We see it in the work of many modern and postmodern photographers who struggle to make more of the human body than a merely sexual object.

19th-Century Erotic Photographs
About This Exhibit
Image List

Exhibited and Sold By
Contemporary Works / Vintage Works, Ltd.

258 Inverness Circle
Chalfont, Pennsylvania   18914   USA

Contact Alex Novak and Marthe Smith

Email info@vintageworks.net

Phone +1-215-518-6962

Call for an Appointment

 

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