George Quaintance

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 of him, Quaintance was a pioneer of male physique painting. This genre played a role in developing a new American gay consciousness in the early 1950s.

Born in 1902, on a farm in rural community of Page County, Virginia to a moderately affluent farming family, Quaintance left home to study art in New York City in 1920. At age 18, he began studies at the prestigious Art Students League, which counted Georgia O'Keeffe among its graduates. His teachers included Ashcan School founder Robert Henri and the Polish-born American expressionist Max Weber.

“Eduardo”, 1954 - George Quaintance

Quaintance's drawing and painting soon took second place among his multiple artistic interests, however. He became enamored of the ballet and other dance forms. He studied with some of the great Russian émigré ballet dancers then in New York.

By 1928, Quaintance led classical and jazz dance instruction with friend and teacher, Sonia Serova. He also danced with a touring vaudeville group, the Collegiates. Quaintance's dance obsession led to a startling twist in his life. When his dance partner, Frances Craig, became ill, he met Miriam Chester, a classically trained ballerina. They formed a "professional partnership" and in August 1929, they married. Both the marriage and partnership were short-lived. By July 4, 1930, Quaintance was pictured in the Washington Evening Star with a new partner, listed only by her first name, Karen.

During the 1930s, Quaintance lived in an apartment building near Alonzo James Hanagan's Upper West Side studio in New York City. The two became friends and Quaintance carefully painted modesty cloths onto nude photographs in exchange for being allowed to keep undoctored prints which he used as the basis for his early attempts at homoerotic painting. The arrangement was unpopular with collectors of Hanagan's prints, but continued for several years.

Zaro Rossi by Quaintance

From his teen years, Quaintance was obviously and actively homosexual. However, he was quite discreet and totally closeted among family, friends, and adoring fans in his native Virginia, repeating a pattern then quite common of gay men who left home in order to lead a homosexual life. During the 1930s and early 1940s, Quaintance often returned to Page County to direct musical revues and stage presentations using local talent.

In 1938, he spent an extended time in his hometown with his new lover, a handsome young Puerto Rican named Victor Garcia. Garcia became the artist's model, life partner, and business associate until Quaintance's untimely death, despite the coming and going of several other handsome young Hispanic lovers.

In 1951, Quaintance's art was used for the first cover of Physique Pictorial, edited by Bob Mizer of the Athletic Model Guild. In the early 1950s, Quaintance and Garcia moved to Rancho Siesta, in Phoenix, Arizona, which became the home of Studio Quaintance, a business venture based around Quaintance's artworks. In 1953, Quaintance completed a series of three paintings about a matador, modeled by Angel Avila, another of his lovers. By 1956, the business had become so successful that Quaintance could not keep up with the demand for his works.

Quaintance died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1957. His legacy is seen in the next three generation of homoerotic artists. His influences can be seen in Jim French's early work under the pseudonym Arion and more recently in the work of Marco Zagato (a.k.a. Artimarkz) and Ali Franco.

Notes for Collectors
Works by George Quaintance have never fallen out of fashion. When his paintings appear in auctions, the prices regularly top US $30,000. His photographs also tend to sell for equally high, some as much as US $1,200. His drawings are not as popular with collectors, but those who do collect them are willing to big high for any they don't already have. Letters and other ephemera – depending on the person the letter was written to – can be reasonably priced or startlingly high. I saw a handwritten receipt sell at auction for US $180.