Eugène Jansson The Naval Bath House

From Wikipedia

Eugène Fredrik Jansson (Stockholm 18 March 1862 – Skara 15 June 1915) was a Swedish painter known for his night-time land- and cityscapes dominated by shades of blue. Towards the end of his life, from about 1904, he mainly painted male nudes. The earlier of these phases has caused him to sometimes be referred to as blåmålaren, “the blue-painter”.

Art historians and critics have long avoided the issue of any possible homoerotic tendencies in this later phase of his art, but later studies (see Brummer 1999) have established that Jansson was in all probability homosexual and appears to have had a relationship with at least one of his models. His brother, Adrian Jansson, who was himself homosexual and survived Eugène by many years, burnt all his letters and many other papers, possibly to avoid scandal (homosexuality was illegal in Sweden until 1944)

Jansson met his muse and lover, Knut Nyman, while at the Navy Bathhouse in Stockholm. Which lead to his most famous painting The Naval Bathhouse.

Eugène Jansson The Naval Bath House will be on permanent display at the Thiel Gallery museum. Read Roaming the Stockholm Bathhouses in Search of Nude Men by Mark A. Thompson for more.