Emile Deriaz

Here we see Emile, one of the seven Deriaz Brothers of Switzerland.

He was also know as The Modern Samson.

 

Adrien Deriaz

I was very pleased to find this photo of Adrien Deriaz on bushnstache.

 

Maurice Deriaz

When I last posted this 1902 Hercules themed photo, I mentioned that it might have been one of the Deriaz Brothers.  Turns out that it was Maurice Deriaz with an unexpected mustache.

 

Maurice Deriaz

This is Maurice Deriaz, perhaps the best known and most 

photographed of the seven Deriaz Brothers.

 

Deriaz Brothers

I spent half a day trying to find clearer versions of these photos 

which show three of the seven Deriaz Brother.  Anybody have any?

That's Adrien at right, by the way.

 

Deriaz

My source only identified this hunk as one of the seven Deriaz brothers, but he looks like Maurice to me.  And yes, the other six were comparably blessed with good looks and builds.

 

Deriaz Brothers

If you think you've seen this photo of Adrien Deriaz before, it may have been here, as I posted it well over four years ago.  At the time, I didn't know it was by Paul Richer, but have since discovered that Mr. Richer took a break from photographing anatomical, movement, and athletic body types to do some artistic work.  Below is a low resolution Richer composite of Adrien Deriaz in several poses:

And just to keep things interesting, Mr. Richard included in his model composites a group called "Brother Act," which is almost certainly several of the seven (!) handsome Deriaz brothers.

I'll be posting more of the brothers in a future series.

 

Adrien Deriaz

This Adrian, one of the seven Deriaz Brothers, a family of Swiss strong men and wrestlers 

very popular around 1900.  And yes, the rest of them looked this good, too.

 

The Deriaz Brothers, Part 2 - Maurice, Emile, Ulysse, and little Samson

Although Adrien Deriaz' nude photos catch a lot of attention, Maurice here was perhaps the best known of the seven brothers.  He had a very successful stage career and famously posed for the talented gay French artist Gustave Courtois.  I will post some of Courtois' work in a future series.

I only have two photos of Emile Deriaz, 

and this fig leaf shot is the better of the two.

Maurice Deriaz was more active in wrestling than most of his brothers,

and he appears here with Japanese wrestler Miyake.

Ulysse, Samson, and Maurice Deriaz (l-r) posed for this interesting photo.

I have one other photo of Ulysse, but it isn't as good as this one.  Little Samson was Ulysse's son, and he used Samson as a dumbell in his stage with the kid did some lifting, too.  I haven't been able to find any information as to whether Samson continued the family business as an adult.

I think this photo of Maurice Deriaz 

was taken in Prof. Desbonnet's Paris studio.

The Deriaz Brothers, Part 1 - Adrien Nude

In the period of 1895-1914, the Swiss Deriaz brothers were a major force in European strong man and wrestling circles, being more prominent in the former.  Papa' Deriaz produced a brood of seven strapping sons, all of whom moved to France and got into the strong man business at one time or another.  We only have photos of four, and only one of those four, Adrien, posed fully nude.  So Adrien gets the entire first portion of our Deriaz double feature starting with this derriere view.

This rather languid pose by Adrien Deriaz is sometimes mistakenly included with the artists' studies done by Marconi and Igout, neither of whom was living during Adrien's career.  I can understand the mistake, though, given the style, posing, and rock used as a prop.

Although not very revealing, this 1906 magazine 

cover shows Adrien Deriaz' muscles beautifully.

Adrien Deriaz posed here in what may have been an Achilles themed motif.

Adrien's waist seems trimmer in this derriere view compared to some other photos.