Painter and photographer Henry Scott Tuke was born on June 12, 1858. We know Tuke for his Impressionist work, figurative paintings featuring nude young men and maritime sailing ship portraits. He socialized with poet Oscar Wilde and painter John Singer Sargent. Collected by Elton John and Freddie Mercury, Tuke emerged as a central figure in art history decades after his death, relevant to queer and homoerotic canon.
Tuke was born in York, England, to a prominent Quaker family known for their work in psychiatry and social activism. He moved with his parents to Falmouth in Cornwall in 1859, to help with his father’s tuberculosis symptoms. There, his family spent days seaside on the beach, and a governess taught the children at home.
Tuke drew and painted from an early age, and after his family moved to London in 1874, he studied at Slade School of Art. After graduating he travelled to Italy in 1880, where he painted oil studies of adolescent nude males. He lived in Paris from 1881 to 1883. In Paris he studied with painter Paul Laurens and met John Singer Sargent, who also painted nude males.
Through the 1880s Tuke befriended Oscar Wilde and writers and poets who identified as “Uranians,” meaning having a female psyche in a male body. Drawing on idealisations of Ancient Greece to call for emancipating desire, Uranians celebrated male nude beauty and pre-Christian Hellenic “man-manly love.”
Tuke wrote a poem and sonnet praising adolescent male beauty. Attributed to Tuke, the poem “Youth” expresses the need for the young to “take again thy rightful crown, in lovers heart to reign!” In his paintings, Tuke presents an adolescent male as the god Hermes, with a winged helmet and caduceus staff.
In 1883 Tuke moved back to Newlyn, Cornwall to live in a colony of artists known as the Newlyn School, which included Walter Langley and Albert Chevalier. In 1884 he painted Summertime, his first boys in boats painting.
In 1885 Tuke moved to Falmouth, also in Cornwall, where the climate was suitable for nude sunbathing. In Swanpool, he transformed his £40 fishing boat into a live-in studio where he would entertain friends and paint models swimming, diving and lounging.
By the 1890s, Tuke had dropped overt references to mythology in his paintings, which never cross into explicit depictions of relationships or bodily details. Young men in his paintings seem to exist in private moments, often with their back to viewers and their anatomy concealed. Tuke’s work deemphasises sexuality, and this likely saved him and his models from scandal.
Tuke maintained close relationships with many of his models. He donated July Sun featuring a young Nicola Lucciana to the Royal Academy of Arts, after the model died in World War I.
On March 13, 1929, Tuke died in Falmouth after suffering from a long illness. In his will, he left money to many men who had previously modelled for him.
In the 1970s, after his reputation had faded somewhat, a new generation of openly gay artists and collectors rediscovered Tuke’s work and revitalised his reputation. In 2017, Tuke was exhibited in Tate Britain’s “Queer British Art 1861-1967.”
Henry Scott Tuke with model Tom White, and others unknown, circa 1917. Photo Unknown, Tate ArchiveHenry Scott Tuke with Johnny Jackett and his wife Sallie Jacket on the beach at Pennance, circa 1920. Photo Unknown, Tate ArchiveHenry Scott Tuke with John De Pass and Alfred A. De Pass in the garden of Cliffe House, Falmouth, circa 1905. Photo Unknown, Tate Archive, annotated on reverse by B.D. PriceHenry Scott Tuke wearing cap and scarf, circa 1920s. Photo Arthur Flynn, Tate ArchiveHenry Scott Tuke in the far left with a group at Gordon Anketell’s house, Passfield Hall, Liphook, Hampshire, circa May 1924. Photo Unknown, Tate ArchiveHenry Scott Tuke in his studio, circa 1927. Photo Unknown, Tate ArchiveHenry Scott Tuke with Mrs Arthur Fynn in his studio at Pennance, n.d. Photo Unknown, Tate ArchiveHenry Scott Tuke in his studio painting ‘Lovers of the Sun’ circa 1926. Photo Unknown. Tate ArchiveHenry Scott Tuke colour glass transparency on the beach painting ‘The Embarcation’ circa 1911. Photo believed to have been George W. Beldam, Tate ArchiveHenry Scott Tuke with model Donald Rolph on Newport beach, circa 1921. Photo Unknown, Tate Archive
About the Authors
Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.
Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.
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