Symbolic Dance by Jan Ciągliński

Symbolic Dance (1898)

Here is a lovely and seductive  painting by the Polish painter Jan Ciągliński (1858-1913).  Although born in Poland he spent most of his career, other than a brief time in Paris. based in St Petersburg, Russia.  In his will, however, he bequeathed most of his works to Poland and many of them were on exhibition in Warsaw over the last few months. 

At the toilet (1909)

Symbolic Dance was painted in 1896 and is a frank portrait of two women, giving a real sense of two models  captured in the studio.  He produced a number of nudes and all have the same understated sensuality about them.

Kiss of the sun (1907)

He visited North Africa and the Middle East and painted a number of orientalist pictures, of the realistic, rather than the harem fantasy, type.  He taught at the Imperial Academy in St Petersburg and became a professor there in 1911. teaching many well known Russian painters.

The supportive tree - Persian couple

Many years ago I had a girlfriend who was an air hostess (as they were then called) for a Middle Eastern airline and she had several friends from Iran Air.  Goodness me, those Iranian ladies were lovely!  Today's Iran, of course, is what used to be known as Persia.

Here is the first example of Persian erotic art I have posted, in this anonymous but charming painting, done sometime in the nineteenth century, of a gentleman taking his lady from behind and, indeed, from his angle of attack, up the arse.  Now Triple P, of course, favours the rear entry position, more often than not (to the extent that a former girlfriend moaned that most people considered her bust her best feature but Triple P never bothered to look at it) but the standing up position does require some adjustment as regards angle of attack, especially if the lady is petite. In this position, having something for the lady to brace against is useful as it enables her to present her rear end in a more accessible way.  This lady has found a perfect young tree for the purpose (although we question, from a horticultural point of view, a tree with such a thick trunk but small upper branches).

My first lady against a tree came (so to speak) about twenty years ago with our particular friend S, from Vancouver.  We were attending an insurance conference at the splendid Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta and after the conference dinner decided to walk back via a small detour into the woods (S wanted to see the Bow Falls in the moonlight, or some such).  S needed to relieve herself and claimed she couldn't wait the few minutes it would take to get back to our room (actually she just enjoys doing it outside, if the truth be told) so we stepped a few yards into the trees.  Both of us then feeling more relaxed she suggested that I then "take her against the tree" (I suspect she used a rather more vulgar word).  So, with her suitably braced on the trunk (arms out in front of her, evening dress up around her hips), I did. Treemendous!

Ménage à trois by French School

Here is a lady entertaining two gentleman or two gentlemen entertaining a lady, depending on your viewpoint, in an anonymous painting of the French School from the eighteenth century.  While being taken from the rear the lady contemplates the other man's erection.  The scene, especially given the man on the right's posture, is rather languid and gives the impression of the enjoyment of some hours of ongoing frolics, rather than a single frantic scene.  He is holding what looks like a pearl necklace.  Is it a gift, a reward or a payment?

Following the death of Louis XIV in 1715, France (or at least Paris - Louis XIV's palace of Versailles was closed down for a number of years ), under the regency of the Duc d'Orléans and then Louis XV, saw a period of libertarianism embodied by the rocaille style of art as practised by Watteau and Boucher.  There were less pompous historical scenes than in the previous baroque style and more frivolous subjects and nudes.

A graphic, fully-rendered, erotic painting such as this was unusual, with most sexual pictures being confined to engravings and drawings.  The artist doesn't have the talent of a Watteau, Boucher or, later, Fragonard but it is a nicely composed scene of  the sort of sexual frolic that the period became notorious for.

Lesbian shunga: Women using a dildo by Chōkyōsai Eiri (1801)

Back in 2013 the  British Museum ran a splendid exhibition called Shunga sex and pleasure in Japanese art, which featured the largest selection of Japanese erotic pictures seen on display in Britain to date.  Given what often looks like a concerted effort by parts of society in Britain at present to increasingly follow America's conservative views, rather than more liberal, continental Europe's, on erotic material it was good to see the British Museum taking this on in such a serious way. 

This picture of a woman about to try out a tie-on dildo on her companion is by Chōkyōsai Eiri, who was active for less than a decade around the turn of the eighteenth to nineteenth centiries.  This picture is one of thirteen from his only known printed erotic work Fumi no kiyogaki from around 1801.  He seemed to mainly specialise in portraits of beauties.

The woman with the dildo holds a container of cream and is saying "As we're going to do it like this I'll put lots of cream on it, so really make yourself come." She says that the cream is needed as the dildo is such a big one.  The other girl has her hand on the dildo and is telling her to stick it in quickly as she wants to come five or six times.  Given its depiction as black, the dildo was probably made of ebony.  Wooden dildos were known as mokuzō but buffalo horn and tortoiseshell ones were common as well.

It's interesting to note that these women aren't lesbians in a relationship but are probably ladies in waiting in a samurai's home, so given the harem-like, women only environment they are just having sex to provide sexual relief rather than because they are in a romantic relationship.  These tie- on dildos could also be attached to a woman's ankle for solo masturbation.

Lesbian Lovers by Paul Avril

 Here is a rather sweet illustration, from French artist Paul Avril, of two young ladies enjoying each other's company.  Perhaps they are scared of the stormy weather, given there is a rather violent flash of lightning and an ominous looking sky outside, and are comforting each other.  Beautiful work on the drapery.

Avril was born Édouard-Henri Avril in Algiers in 1849. He studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris in the eighteen seventies.  He illustrated both conventional novels and what the French called galante literature which were privately published erotic novels.  He died in 1928.

This example comes from a 1909 edition of just 310 copies of the 1741 novel Histoire du Saturnin Portier du Chartreux by Gervaise de Latouche, which is a story about illicit love between monks and nuns.  According to the original caption, the lady on the right  is feeling "her pleasure mount by degrees".

Avril was one of the greatest erotic illustrators of all time and I will feature more of his work soon.