The Art of Colt 2 - Sailors

Lüger - Sailor in a Basket Chair 1

 Sailors are a key element of gay iconography and this is a sexy image, but it's the sheer quality of this picture that attracts admiration. The masculine authenticity of the man's face and his languid pose transmits a sense of intense realism through a thin veneer of stylisation that is quite different to Tom of Finland's brand of 'photo-realism'. The chair itself is a design classic from a fertile era of 'new looks' and it's angular shaping complements the planes and surfaces which the artist draws our attention to in the man's face and limbs.

The 'Lüger Period' produced some memorable images at a time (1960's) when gay Art works were allowed slightly more freedom, but the phenomenon which I have tagged 'hidden eroticism' still flourished with artists and their viewers playing the game of spotting the visual innuendo. Thus Sailor in a basket chair daringly features semi-nudity, but it's 'bottom half' nudity, so not exactly devoid of erotic intent. (For my money that combination is more erotic than full nudity even though the buttocks and sexual organs are hidden). There's no-one else around in the picture which might suggest something indecent is going on, but the man is clearly flaunting his assets, even if he's posed like a matelot casually relaxing between watches.

This much would have been perfectly apparent to any censor. So too, probably, the way the chair seat curves up between the sailor's thighs in a cupping shape that is very suggestive. However I suspect they might not have realised that Lüger's cloaking foot (and what a splendid foot it is!) is as fetishistic for many men as a cock and they would express their adoration in the same way - by sucking it. It's no coincidence either that the vertical row of sailor toes is positioned exactly where an erect organ would be and it's even drawn to resemble one with fingers wrapped round it. This picture was available in the UK around 1966 (as a Dutch import) and was published alongside more explicitly nude images that still had to be censored.

The world has changed but similar publishing restraints still prevail today in social media and lead to equally ingenious attempts to get round them and push boundaries (have a look at Colt Studios Instagram account and you'll see what I mean). At least today, being caught out merely leads to banishment from the media platform and not prison or confiscation of the offending artwork, as was the case in olden days.

Jim French - Sailor in a Basket Chair (Reference Photo)

 Lüger drew a number of pictures featuring sailors sitting in this chair. I know of at least 6 different images and this reference photograph doesn't match any of them exactly, so I imagine there could be more. The fact that the model's G-string is transparent here also suggests that there were some much more explicit variants too, presumably available to selected patrons under blank covers. This photograph also gives us an idea of just how the much the artist enhanced his model's appearance in the final picture,
elevating it into the realms of sensuality

Lüger - Sailor in a Basket Chair 2

This image on the same theme is closely related to the photo above and although this older man's assets are enclosed by white underwear it's scarcely less sexy. I suspect the erotic detailing of his 'bulge' has been subtly censored with a flat white overlay (to the right) but that intervention has perversely created an oddly-shaped, but more impressive bulkiness. The equally erotic region underneath has escaped this attention, allowing a glimpse of buttock cleavage and a ball-sack shaping and enclosure that could not have been created naturally by the underwear of it's day. The mature appearance of this man and his totally immodest pose, struck while dressed in a sailor's uniform, challenges conventions too and is quite shocking in it's own way. No need for hidden eroticism here! Notice that once again the feet get star treatment.

Lüger - Three Sailors Off Duty

 This remarkable image is a fore-runner of the '3 men' tableaux for which Colt is well known. The foreground sailor has a splendid rear which the artist has showcased by cropping his top, a device that almost goes unnoticed by the viewer at first. This idea is borrowed from surfer/beach boy fashions and the sailor's youthful credentials are further enhanced by the jaunty tilt of his cap, allowing a sexy lock of curled blond hair to escape. The cigarette in his hand suggests an attempt to assert his masculinity which is quite charming. The sock dangling from his hand signals that he is in the process of undressing, but it's shaping is a none-too-subtle reference to a dangling cock.

The interest of the reclining sailors in him is undisguised too, the older man on the left being a particularly striking, self-consciously manly image. The sense of cross-generational lust in his face is quite unsettling (but it's all refreshingly legal!). The third sailor has a more youthful appearance but his sly, knowing, (dare I say 'queenly'?) smile seems to speak of equally profound experience and desire. It's like they are both weighing up the new recruit and suddenly his neatly-pressed, but vandalised uniform and the soft dangling sock reduce him to a naive, awkward appearance under their gaze. It creates the sense that they intend to induct him into the self-contained and isolated world of warships at sea and mentor him in the darker mysteries of naval discipline and order.

This sort of naval scene is echoed in the work of other contemporary artists of the 60's, like Tom of Finland, Art Bob and Spartacus. This interest seems to reflect a nostalgia for the wartime years of shared struggle and a belief in homoerotic comradeship existing in the safely private, all-male environment of ships.  

Lüger - Sailors Scrubbing the Deck

This image has similar cross-generational mentorship vibes to the last one but darker in nature. It's a rather more risqué age pairing too, saved - in the modern era at least - by reference to call-up ages. The young sailor, reduced to scrubbing the deck in his boyish underwear is clearly being humiliated
and dominated, we may surmise, by the old tar behind him.

The juxtaposition of head and crotch is so artfully innocent here as to present a real conundrum for would-be censor, but the knowing eye sees a young man's cock-worship interrupted by our arrival.
(are we supposed to think here of the old song 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles?).

The older man's 'spyglass' pose of course alludes to even more intimate matters in the pipeline, so to speak. Coupled with his overtly sexual pose, it's a none-too-subtle hint that this boy is about to loose that virginal innocence and cleanliness so cleverly encapsulated in his appearance by the artist.
Notice though that the artist gives us the tiniest glimpse of the older man's underwear as a reassurance that it's all quite decent really.

Lüger - Drunken Sailors

Another traditional song reference here and a more traditional view of Sailordom laced with homoerotic fantasy that gives an unequivocal answer to the question in the song title.
You could just grab the yummy guy on the ground and run off with him couldn't you?


In a way, this marks a transition from the Lüger brand of muscular, erotic assertiveness to the beautiful figure drawing and cheerful sexual celebration which was to be more characteristic of the Colt era. Strictly speaking the changes in Jim French's 'name labels' (Arion - Lüger - Colt) were driven by his commercial projects (see bio here), but they also reflect the changing moods of the 60's as gays (as a group) gradually came out of the closet. This image reflects rather nicely the heady intoxication of that initial liberation, although, paradoxically, Sailors and other members of the military were not allowed to be included in it. It was really just the start of a journey not the end. A journey still unfinished.

For me, these Sailor images are amongst Colt's finest work 

and as good an example of Homoerotic Art as you could wish to find

 (and I use the capitals deliberately).

Continued in Part 3 - The Cowboys
Read from Colt Part 1

I haven't found a legitimate source of Colt's artwork, Colt Studio don't seem to publish it now.

There's a decent Colt Collection at Daddy's here

An interesting biography/obit written by Bob Mizer in 2017

For other explorations of the art of hidden eroticism, click on the label below.