The Complete Manikin

The Complete Manikin anatomical chart featuring a lithograph of bodybuilder Eugen Sandow, with printed key and manilla envelope. John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, circa 1920.

Production date

circa 1920

Production organisations

John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd

Labels

This image presents Eugen Sandow as a model for the ideal male anatomy.

Sandow was a complex figure, who in many ways originated the fraught relationship between body image and masculinity in modern gay communities. A Victorian muscleman, he was known for his flamboyant shows of strength, such as balancing pianos on his chest. Later in his life, he became a successful businessman, and one of the founders of modern gym and bodybuilding culture.

Sandow’s connection with the gay communities of the Victorian era began with the photographs taken of his body. Usually inspired by homoerotic figures from Greco-Roman myth, these images were exchanged as romantic tokens between gay men, with his nude portraits often circulated as a pornographic material. At Sandow's meet-and-greet events, usually held after his shows for the theatrical impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, he was happy to allow men to intimately ogle and touch his body. He also had a longtime male companion, the Dutch pianist Martinus Sieveking, who many believed was his romantic partner.

However, his form was later appropriated as a symbol of the British Empire, due to his virility and extreme strength. This need to reinforce heteronormative messages is often read as a response to the Oscar Wilde libel trial, in which the widespread homosexual networks in Victorian England became visible to the public, to great backlash. After this trial, Sandow’s image shifted considerably. He married Blanche Brooks and stopped posing for nude photographs. Instead, he focused on developing exercise equipment, opening gyms and publishing theories on bodybuilding. He referred to his philosophy as 'the Nation's Salvation’ and suggested it would prepare the British for military success and the expansion of Empire. These ideas were strongly influenced by eugenics, as Sandow framed physical strength as a road to racial superiority. Then as now, these ideas were often used as justification for ethnic cleansing and the abuse of disabled people. This leaves Sandow with a complex and troubling legacy. He is alternately seen as resisting gay stereotypes by suggesting a virile queer masculinity, whilst perpetuating ideas that contribute to prejudice against more effeminate-presenting gay men. However, in his own time, Sandow’s bodybuilding magazine and gyms continued to provide spaces for gay men to take visual pleasure in male physicality, this time within the legitimising framework of patriotism. His legacy as a key figure in the gay community remained secure.

Amy Kitchingman, Hidden Histories MA Project Researcher