A surprise on Pinterest this morning: the head from a 1925 Saint Sebastian painting by Swedish artist Owe Zerge (1894 – 1983); even in the crowded field of homoerotic St. Sebastian depictions, the martyred saint in Zerge’s painting stands out as an exceptionally beautiful young man:
(#1) The Auctionet site says it’s a painting of Zerge’s (20 years younger) friend and travel companion Hugo Holmer (1915 – 2002) and reports that it was Zerge’s favorite work, one he refused to sell in his lifetime
I then searched further for biographical information on Zerge, finding material only on artworld — art sales and auction — sites, all of it talking in bland terms about his artistic styles and his quiet life history in Sweden, and nothing more. Meanwhile, various gay sites have noted the evident homoeroticism in many of his works, citing especially the 1925 Saint Sebastian, a 1919 Model Act, and a 1948 Boy in American Sailor Costume (I’ll get to all of them in a little while). It could hardly be clearer that Zerge’s sexual imagination — richly manifested in his art — centered on boys and young men, and that he had a long-term affectionate friendship with Holman, who could fairly be characterized as the love of his life. Whether Zerge and Holman were sexual partners is none of our business (unconsummated passions were commonplace a hundred years ago), and there’s no evidence that I can find that Zerge ever did more than, scrupulously, appreciate young, lean male bodies. So I view it as a shame that his substantial body of homoerotic art is not better known and celebrated.
