The 'Open Secret' of Alfred Gilbert's Male Nudes (No. 53)

Description

This essay takes as its central problem the discrepancies between the ‘standard scholarship’ of Alfred Gilbert’s (1854-1934) statuary and the author’s first-hand perceptions of these sculptures.

Engaging directly with what he describes as the ‘immediately and obviously ‘queer’’ nature of the statues, Jason Edwards (Professor of History of Art, University of York) discusses Gilbert’s work in terms of masculine identity, the history of male homosexuality, and late-Victorian culture more broadly.