Magazine Week, Day 2- La Culture Physique

Jointly founded by Professor Edmond Desbonnet and author/publisher Albert Surier, La Culture Physique was published from 1904 to 1967.  Today we will look at some photos and pages from the first five  years of its history, beginning with a cover featuring the great Eugen Sandow.  We will see Mr. Sandow again later in today's set.  LCP never showed full frontal nudity, but they did show derriere shots regularly.  Their latter years were not nearly as open as the early in terms of nudity.

 

Eugen Sandow II

As promised, here is a different and very special view of Eugen Sandow.

 

Eugen Sandow

It's been years since I devoted and entire series to the great Eugen Sandow, so let's do it today.

We start with a grainy photo of him standing on a leopard skin working a dumbbell.

I promise you the quality gets much better going forward in the set.

 

Younger?

Is it just me, or does Mr. Sandow look younger in this photo than many?

 

Stark Lighting

The stark lighting here seems to work.

 

Hercules Rear I

There are several hand-tinted color photos of Eugen Sandow circulating online.There are also 

some fake modern re-dos, but I think this version of Hercules and his club is original.

 

Warwick Brooks

Mr. Sandow posed for Warwick Brooks of Manchester, England in 1895.

 

Movie

This movie is from the Library of Congress film collection.

Mr. Sandow looks simply magnificent.

 

Benjamin Falk

Benjamin Falk took this and at least one other reclining photo of Sandow.

 

Hercules Rear II

The club Herr Sandow is holding again harkens to the Classical Hercules motif.

 

Sarony

New York photographer Napoleon Sarony is generally regarded as tops when it came to capturing images of Eugen Sandow.  This isn't even the best example, but it is one I haven't yet posted.

 

Looking up

Ending with another fig leaf photo of Eugen Sandow looking up.

 

Sandow 1895

This is hands down my favorite recent acquisition.  Eugen Sandow looks like he is looking straight into my eyes and engaged with me.  He appears incredibly strong and vulnerable at the same time.

The image was made in 1893 by the great photographer Sarony.

 

Eugen Sandow

I can think of no better way to conclude a fig leaf series than

the immortal Eugen Sandow as photographed by Warwick Brookes.

 

Sandow by Falk

Here we have the immortal Eugen Sandow as photographed by Benjamin Falk.

 

Sandow

Here we have Eugen Sandow as photographed by Sarony.

 

Sandow Ad

Eugen Sandow appeared in a remarkable ad for Prof. Desbonnet's gym.

 

Eugen Sandow

Of course, we couldn't do this series without an appearance by the 

great Sandow, and I saved him and his shapely bottom for last.

 

Sandow

Our final strong man derriere belongs to Eugen Sandow.

 

Fig Leaves, Part 2 - Eugen Sandow

Part two of our fig leaf double feature shows off the amazing Eugen Sandow,

a heartthrob for both men and women in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Here, as usual, he looks like a finely sculpted hunk of marble.