George Quaintance born 3 June 1902 (d. 1957)George Quaintance was a man of many of talents - dancer; designer of stage sets, interiors and New York department store windows; he also designed women's make-up and hairstyles for Hollywood stars and New York socialites, and was a sought-after portrait artist. But George Quaintance's main contribution to gay life and culture and the key to his true significance is his long career as a male physique photographer and, more especially, his extraordinary paintings, which are now highly collectible and hold a unique place in the story of gay sensibility and imagery in the twentieth century. His art helped define the now-familiar iconography of male erotica.
John Waybright - GLBTQ Encyclopedia
Although now obscure, George Quaintance was one of the most influential figures in a unique American style of art and one of the most flamboyant and interesting gay characters for four decades of the twentieth century.
Though few people outside the gay world know it, Quaintance was a pioneer of male physique painting. This genre heralded a new American gay consciousness in the early 1950s.
A more detailed biography of this extraordinary man and his life and work is available at the GLBTQ Encyclopedia.
Quaintance, the first major biography of George Quaintance, by John Waybright and Ken Furtado, is due to published soon.
The Quaintance Collection
