In the Musée d'Orsay's exhibit on pre-Impressionist painter Bazille, they say that his friends and family were shocked to find that he would willingly join the military to fight in the Franco-Prussian War. There were also many rumors (and I find a lot of pretty obvious evidence) that Bazille was gay. Doesn't seem like a huge shock for a gay guy to be surrounded by lots of other men for an extended period of time... Also, if anybody knows the fascinating and fun history of Tom of Finland during the Russian/Nazi occupation of Finland during WWII, this wouldn't come as a surprise either...
As the exhibit shows a lot of his art seemed to "invert" the male gaze, by well, placing it on itself... I'm curious if...
1) Is intimate portraiture of men always homoerotic? A lot of Bazille's paintings put men in the place of many familiar Impressionist images, which usually feature women (nude paintings, lying in bed, etc.). Does this disrupt a het-male gaze? Is it always a 'lil gay?
2) Do straight people miss the details when things like this are written?
3) Bazille came from a very bourgeois family who wanted him to be a doctor. His father finally caved and let him become an artist instead. Apparently, Bazille had a lot of rumblings because of the constraints of his family. Could there be a suppressed queer story here?