In 1925, George Platt Lynes, the photographer of this image, went on a trip to Paris where he met many influential literary figures and people who would further influence his career, including this image. Some of the people he met included Gertrude Stein, Monroe Wheeler, and Glenway Westcott. These people introduced him to the literary world and helped him to discover his passion and interest for photography and taking portraits such as this one. In turn, he was then able to produce work that later influenced and inspired the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe.

Lynes also went on to have continuous romantic relationships with both Monroe Wheeler and Glenway Westcott. While he lived with Wheeler and Westcott, he still would engage in casual sex with other people. Lynes kept a daybook where he would write people’s initials when they’d had sex. Through this daybook, it has been able to be discovered that Lynes had sex with both men and women, while he preferred men. These casual encounters most likely influenced his artistic work or vice versa (his artistic work providing him with people for casual sexual encounters). Eventually, Lynes left his relationship with Wheeler and Westcott for his studio assistant Jonathan Tichenor, which didn’t last long as Tichenor left him for a woman soon after.

Bates College. “George Platt Lynes Biography.” Museum of Art, 18 May 2023, www.bates.edu/museum/exhibitions/george-platt-lynes-biography/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Brown, Elspeth H. "A Not-So-Simple Love Story." Literary Review of Canada, June 2019, reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2019/…. Accessed 1 Apr. 2024.

Yale University. “Lynes, George Platt, 1907-1955 | Archives at Yale.” Archives at Yale, archives.yale.edu/agents/people/57076. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

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by Noah Meckes

While most people claim that the true Sexual Revolution occurred in the 1960s-1970s, there is evidence that the roots can trace as far back as the 1940s. The 1940s and 1950s was the time of the “Silent Generation” and was characterized by WWII, which changed the way that the people of the time viewed sex and sexuality. As people were going to war, they were returning with new and different views of sexuality which created ideas that caused the Sexual Revolution to develop fully in the 1960s. This start of a slight shift in ideals and ideas regarding sex and sexuality caused an image like this one to be considered less taboo than it would have been a few years earlier.

Some other early players in the beginning of the Silent Sexual Revolution include Paul Cadmus who was a famous painter known for paintings such as the controversial The Fleet’s In!. Cadmus helped to jumpstart these changes of discussions about sexuality by including symbols that were common in the queer community at the time such as wearing a red tie. This was often used as a symbol for gay men to signal to other gay men that they are available.

Glaser, Gabrielle. “The Sexual Double Standards That Led to the Baby Boom—and “Girls in Trouble.”” Literary Hub, 27 Jan. 2021, lithub.com/the-sexual-double-standards-that-led-to-the-baby-boom-and-girls-in-trouble/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Martin, Bryan. “Paul Cadmus and the Censorship of Queer Art”. The Met, 25 June 2021, www.metmuseum.org/perspectives…. Accessed 1 Apr. 2024.

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by Noah Meckes

In 1941, just one year after moving to the United States from Russia, Yul Brynner made his Broadway debut in Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Night. This proved to be a successful Broadway opening and helped lead Brynner to future roles, despite newly learning English. However, the show closed at the start of WWII, which caused Brynner to need to find other jobs in the interim. One of these in-between jobs was this photoshoot with George Platt Lynes. Prior to moving to America, Brynner worked as a musician in Parisian nightclubs as well as having a brief career as a trapeze artist in France. After his time in The Twelfth Night, Brynner got the role of King Mongkut in The King and I. This proved to be one of his most famous and successful roles of his lifetime. 

Brynner was often viewed as a sexual icon throughout his career, as well as one of, if not the first, bald person that was viewed as a sexual icon. He was married four times between 1944 and his death in 1985. The longest time between the end of one marriage and the start of his next marriage was four years between his second and third wives. He also had many affairs with different women (and some people suspect he had affairs with men as well) throughout his career.

Biography.com Editors. "Yul Brynner Biography". A&E; Television Networks, 2 Dec. 2021, www.biography.com/actors/yul-b…. Accessed 1 Apr 2024.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Yul Brynner". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Feb. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Y…. Accessed 18 March 2024.

Associated Places

by Noah Meckes