Vintage Athletes - Part 26

 Weightlifters

The oldest photo that I've seen of a weightlifter is this 1870 photo by French photographer Louis Igout.  The dumbbells are on the ground, but presumably he was using them.  I stole this photo from Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

I made this gif from a series of stop-motion photographs by Edweard Muybridge called "Nude man lifting and holding two 50-pound dumbbells" in his book Animal Locomotion, 1887. 

Around the beginning of the 20th century, seven brawny Swiss brothers dominated European weightlifting and wrestling competitions.  Above, Maurice Deriaz set a world record by lifting 211 livres (about 228 pounds) with one arm.

Maurice was also the favorite model of French artist Gustave Courtois.  This is Hercules at the Feet of Omphale, 1912, with Maurice as the model for Hercules.

Another painting by Courtois with Maurice as a model is Perseus rescuing Andromeda, 1913.

And this 1907 painting is just called Portrait of the Athlete Maurice Deriaz.  The artist Courtois was gay.  He never sold these three paintings with Maurice as a model.  Instead, in an extraordinary gesture, he gave them to Maurice, who kept them until he died and willed them to the Swiss town of Baulmes, where they now hang in the town hall.  What was the relationship between the gay artist and his handsome, muscular model?  Looking at this last portrait, I think I can guess.

Maurice's bother Adrien Deriaz, who was also a weightlifter, got even more exposure (pun intended) for his beautiful physique.  Here's a photo of him in 1899.

And here's another photo of Adrien for those who admire rear views.

Weightlifters attracted other artists, too.  This painting is Pushing Weights with Two Arms II by Swedish painter Eugene Jansson, 1913-1914.

And this is Jansson's 1915 painting Lifting Weights with One Arm.  We'll see more of Jansson's work tomorrow.

This is Ernest Cadine, a French weightlifter who won a gold medal in the 1920 Olympics.

Here's a guy lifting dumbbells c. 1930.

We've previously seen this photo called Lifting Weights in the Buff by mid-20th century Boston newspaper photographer Leslie Jones.

We end with another Olympic weightlifter, Stan Stanczyk.  He was on the 1948 U.S. Olympic weightlifting team.  Two years earlier, he posed for this photo by physique photographer Douglas of Detroit.