Advocate.com article about Emlen Etting

[+ Charlie]

When I went to the reviews page this morning, I was surprised to see that the last item that Daddy posted a link to under the coverboy photo was an article from Advocate.com about the late Philadelphia artist Emlen Etting. The writer was being very coy about whether Emlen was gay--as though one could doubt it from the subject and style of his paintings!--because he was happily married to socialite Gloria Braggiotti for many years. The writer did point out that other well-known figures, like Somerset Maugham, had wives that seemed to accept their husbands' occasional affairs with men, but the marriages were solid. Well, let me tell you: I knew Emlen and Gloria, and yes, Emlen was definitely gay, and yes, Gloria knew. She was unquestionably the dominant partner in their relationship, and she had to vet the young men with whom he had sex, but the marriage freed him to create the kind of art he wished, which would have raised eyebrows in staid Philadelphia society otherwise, especially since Emlen was pretty fey.

 

By the way, it's worth scrolling through the article's links to the paintings, because Emlen did have an eye for male beauty (I recognize the models for two of the paintings).

[skynyc]

Thanks for pointing out the article...wonderful look at some of his work.

Here's the link:

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/art/artist-spotlight/2013/08/24/artist-spotlight-emlen-etting

Interesting to see how he was influenced by the same styles as Cadmus, and some of the line work seems clearly to have influenced Jules Feiffer and some other contemporary folk.

Thanks for sharing your personal recollection. I bet you have wonderful stories.