Sale 2514 - The Pride Sale, June 20, 2019

18 c HENRY SCOTT TUKE (1858-1929) Two Boys Rowing . Color pastels on tan wove paper. 13 1 / 4 x8 1 / 4 inches, 34x21 cm. Signed and dated in pastel, lower left recto. 1915. [1,500/2,500] Tuke was an English artist who showed artistic acumen from a young age; some of his drawings were published when he was just 5 years old. He became friends with Oscar Wilde and other prominent gay writers and poets. He tested his skill as a poet with Sonnet to Youth , which he published anonymously. He is most well-known for his maritime paintings, though his paintings of youthful men were rediscovered by the gay community in the 1970s when he was celebrated and identified as a progenitor of the meme by Rictor Norton, in his essay “The Beginnings of Beefcake.”