#vintage gay couple

In honour of the wonderful Oscar Wilde, whose 159th birthday it is on the 16th, pictured here with his beautiful and beloved Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas.
(My earlier posts featuring this dapper pair can be found here)
 

The first photograph in this set may be familiar, this touching scene having become deservedly popular in recent years, but I’m delighted to present two more featuring the same fellows - a wonderful look back in time, to the day these men posed for Robert Gant, in Masterton, New Zealand, between 1887 and 1889. On the left in each subsequent shot, the kissing pair again show their intimate affection in the second photograph; while in the third, standing, the remarkable difference in height becomes all the more apparent!

A sweet submission from a reader - gratefully received, thankyou sir! Featuring some quite splendid neckties, especially that smashing patterned article on the right! I wonder what he’s holding, it looks too thin to be a book, a card or leaflet perhaps…I cannot curb my curiosity for lost details we shall never know!

[edit]What the..? It appears to say I have submitted this to myself, from my other Tumblr. I assure you that is not the case, and regret that I did not save the name of the kind gent who really sent it my way. 

So many vintage photographs of two male sitters appearing intimately linked may be nothing more than platonic affection between friends or relations, but in this case they are undoubtedly lovers, as we know exactly who they are for a change, famous faces indeed!

queering:

Oscar Wilde; Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas by Gillman & Co.
silver gelatin print, May 1893
(via National Portrait Gallery, London)

Their somewhat glum expressions are more than made up for by the lovely hand-tinting to give a colourized effect to the back and white photograph. 

One of the most elegant, captivating war portraits I’ve ever seen, such a graceful but intimate pose - whether they were a couple or just affectionate brothers, cousins or close friends, there’s a lot of protective, loving posessiveness in the way they’re holding eachother, and you can’t help but hope they both survived the troubled times to come.

Perhaps a little later than most of my choices (a judgement based, with no known date to go by, on the design of their ties, and the general spontaneity of style seeming much more like the amateur photography which became popular only after the Great War) but I just could not resist including such a wonderful moment captured on camera, for it is still a very long time ago, and a thing to be treasured!

AIN’T LOVE GRAND INDEED!