It's Gay Pride week...

...let's hope it doesn't rain!

Pride in London 2013

A Little Gay History

The Warren Cup

From the BBC website:

The British Museum has launched a guide focusing on elements of homosexuality to be found in its collection.

A Little Gay History draws on objects ranging from ancient Egyptian papyri and the erotic scenes on the Roman Warren Cup to images by David Hockney.

Written by curator Richard Parkinson, it explores artistic portrayals of what it means to be gay and the difficulties in finding records of same-sex desire.

Antinous, lover of the Emperor Hadrian

Timed to tie in with the London Gay Pride festival, which takes place next week, the podcast - which also features artist Maggi Hambling and writer Kate Smith - discusses a number of key objects in the Museum's collection from ancient to modern times.

"Museums have always been very important spaces for people to consider their own sexual identity," explained Mr Parkinson - curator in the ancient Egypt department - in the guide.

"Most museums have collections of Greek and Roman statues which show men looking very naked, so for men who desired other men it was one of the few spaces where they could look at naked male bodies in a culturally respectable sort of way."

The project began with Same-sex desire and gender identity, launched as part of LGBT History Month in 2010.

It has since been developed into Mr Parkinson's book, and recognises the importance of gay role models throughout history.

The guide is accompanied by an audio trail featuring Simon Russell Beale:




If the player doesn't work, click here for the audio stream.

A Little Gay History, £9.99 from the the British Museum shop

It's Midsummer's Day...

...carry a fan!

A boudoir to which we can only aspire

...as is that wig.

Any suspicion of effeminacy was completely banished

“Mon Dieu! George Mallory!” - Lytton Strachey

His tutor at Cambridge A.C. Benson* described his face thus: “Its shape, its delicately cut features, especially the rather large, heavily lashed, thoughtful eyes, were extraordinarily suggestive of a Botticelli Madonna, even when he had ceased to be a boy - although any suspicion of effeminacy was completely banished by obvious proofs of physical energy and strength.”

During the 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition, the intrepid George Mallory famously disappeared somewhere high on the North-East ridge during an attempt to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. His ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was discovered in May 1999. Whether Mallory and his climbing partner Irvine reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation.

Prior to this feat of derring-do, however, Mr Mallory had created quite a stir among the artistic community at Cambridge (led by Rupert Brooke; Virginia Woolf called them "the Neo-Pagans"), some of whom went on to become known as "The Bloomsbury Set":

"Mallory's muscular beauty attracted both men and women. Duncan Grant painted him a number of times, as did the French artist Simon Bussy. The extent of Mallory's homosexuality is much discussed."

According to many sources, he had relationships with James Strachey [brother of Lytton] and with Duncan Grant (who took the portfolio of nude photographs of George). Regardless, after leaving Cambridge he married (Ruth) and fathered three children. It is said he carried a photograph of his wife to the summit of Everest, but it has never been found.

On being asked why he wanted to conquer Everest, Mallory famously said “Because it's there.”

George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18th June 1886 – 8th or 9th June 1924)

[* Arthur Benson was one of the three gay Benson brothers (the others being the cleric and scholar R.H Benson, and E.F. Benson of Mapp and Lucia fame); he famously composed Land of Hope and Glory.]

In the Corner

Mrs William Rhinelander Stewart


Igor Stravinsky


Gypsy Rose Lee


Marcel Duchamp


Martha Graham


Salvador Dali


Marlene Dietrich


Truman Capote


Wallis Simpson

"A good photograph is one that communicate a fact, touches the heart, leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective."

"I myself have always stood in the awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel."

Portraits "in the corner" by Irving Penn (16th June 1917 – 7th October 2009)

I'm mostly dressing casual this weekend

...like Miss Mary Nolan!