Hiking - Part 60

The Eifel, Germany

At the end of August and beginning of September, 2024, a group of naked hikers did a hike in Germany's Eifel Park.  The nine hikers above had also participated in the Naked European Walking Tour (NEWT) hike in Austria earlier this year, which we saw last time.

We see some familiar faces (and other body parts).  On the left is Natfree Pascal from France, who organizes the Naked European Walking Tours.  Next to him is Jerome Jolibois, who organizes the World Naked Bike Ride in Brussels, Belgium.  Next is a guy called Naked Dutchman, then a guy called Naked Adventures from Brussels, Belgium.  On the right is a Dutch guy who we saw in our last Hiking post who calls himself Naked Hiker.

They were joined by eight others to make this group of seventeen.

They set out to hike in Eifel Park, which participants referred to as "the Eifel".  This park in Germany, near the border of Belgium, has no connection to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Naked Hiker posted several photos from the hike.  Here he is on a dirt road.

Here he is at a rock formation called the Teufelsey Rocks.

Posing in a drainage pipe under the road, front view ...

and rear view.

Here's Naked Hiker cooking for the group, so it appears they had somewhere to stay, not just in tents.

Here they are figuring out directions.

Pascal posing under a stone arch, perhaps part of an old fortification.

We end with the group by a stone structure.  Looks like it was a nice hike.

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Pascal organizes the annual Naked European Walking Tour (NEWT), which we saw in my last Hiking post https://unashamedmale.blogspot.com/2024/11/hiking-part-59.html.

For more info about the next NEWT and how to sign up for it, see https://www.naktiv.net/events/newt-2025-naked-european-walking-tour/.  The 2025 tour is already fully signed up, but people are contacting Pascal about signing up for the 2026 tour.  That's how popular these naked walking tours are.

Weighing In - Part 62

Joe Murray

We've already seen British boxer John Murray.  Today we see his brother, Joe Murray, born in 1987, also a boxer.  Above, Joe weighs in for a fight in 2015.

In 2008 Joe represented Britain as a bantamweight boxer in the Olympic Games in Beijing, China.  He didn't appear naked for the official weigh-in, but here he is checking his weight in Beijing before the official weigh-in. Yes, he was under the limit.  Unfortunately, he lost the Olympic match to his Chinese opponent.

Poem of the Day - Part 61

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Artists - Part 65

Gustave Courtois and
Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret

Gustav Courtois (1862-1923), at left above, was a French painter in the "academic" style.  At school, he met another artist, Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929), at right above, who became one of the leading members of the "naturalist" school.  The two men became lifelong friends and shared the same artists' studio in Paris.

We start with some male nudes by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret.  Above, Reclining Male Nude, Study for Atalante, 1874, drawn while he was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

Other male nudes produced while he was a student include Study of a Male Nude, 1876, above, now in the Yale University Art Gallery ...

Figure Study ...

and Male Nude Study, 1877.  The damage to the painting looks like someone folded it.

After his student work, Pascal does not seem to have painted any more male nudes.  

In the 1880s, Pascal and Gustave started sharing the same artist's studio.  Were they lovers?  Probably not.  Pascal ended up marrying Gustave's cousin Maria.

Gustave, however, never married and was probably gay.  Above, Pascal's painting Hamlet and the Grave Digger, 1883.  The models were Gustave (with the long beard) and next to him, another artist friend, Carl Ernst von Stetten.

Carl frequently served as a model for Gustave, like Gustave's painting St. Sebastian, above.  Gustave and Carl became lifelong companions and were probably lovers.  Later, during World War I, Gustave and Carl waited out the war together in Switzerland.

Gustave's work features quite a few nude or bare-chested men, but the nudes were respectably disguised as religious or mythological subjects such as Adam and Eve, above ...

or as academic figure studies, such as Académie Masculine au Lézard, enlivened by the addition of the lizard.  Carl was probably the model for both these works.

This drawing is called L’Amour (Love), a sketch for a larger painting.  The academic reference is to Cupid, the Roman god of love.  Was Courtois hinting at something else with the title?

More tantalizing was Gustave's relationship with Maurice Deriaz, seen in this photo.  Maurice, born in Switzerland in 1885, was one of seven athletic brothers.  Several became famous strongmen and weightlifters.  Maurice, known as “The Swiss Lion,” lifted a 228-pound barbell with one arm, a world record.

Maurice modeled for Gustave multiple times from at least 1907 to 1913.  This photo of Gustave's studio shows Maurice modeling, nude except for some draped cloth, while Gustave sketches him.

This sketch of Maurice is from 1911.  At upper right are the words "Se faire un chemin par la force" (make a way by force), a scholarly quotation from Virgil’s Aeneid, but also a reference to this young man who made his way in the world through his strength.

Maurice was probably the muscular model for Paradise Lost.

Maurice was definitely the model for this 1912 painting, called Hercules at the feet of Omphale.

Maurice is again featured in this 1913 painting called Perseus Rescuing Andromeda. 

We end with this 1907 painting called Portrait of the Athlete Maurice Deriaz.  The remarkable thing is that Gustave did not sell these last three paintings.  Instead, he gave them to Maurice, who kept them in his house 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 artist and his handsome, muscular model?  We can only guess.

Beach Bums - Part 59

 Marshall's Beach, San Francisco

Marshall's Beach is on the west (Pacific) side of San Francisco.  To get to it, you descend stairs down a cliff.  I previously showed some photos of it as Baker Beach, but strictly speaking, Marshall's Beach is to the north of Baker Beach. 

Marshall's Beach stretches up to the Golden Gate Bridge at the tip of the peninsula.  It's a nude beach, and the cliffs keep it somewhat isolated from the city.

The northern end of the beach is primarily gay.  Of course, San Francisco is known for its large gay population.

The beach goes all the way up to the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

On the beach, you can stretch out or cuddle on the sand ...

or run in the waves (the water is usually too cold for swimming) ...

or play on the beach, like this guy who has a big stick.

Here's a nice group shot ...

and in case there's any doubt, they are all-American.

Of course, with so many naked gay guys around, there might be some action going on ...

but the attitude of other beachgoers is: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Not the Same Old Song - Part 55

 Stuck On You

Stuck On You was an Elvis Presley hit in 1960.  I may have slightly re-interpreted what gets stuck on you, and where.