"While twenty-first century eyes are more likely to view them with suspicion, as covertly sexual, the success and popularity of these works makes it clear that the bathing boy or youth was a completely legitimate genre in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and many such paintings adorned the walls of exhibitions, galleries and homes not only in Britain but through Europe and beyond. For most artists and viewers this motif was about health, vigour and charm, a depiction of a childhood far from the evils and social problems of modern city life. Thus, the subject was innocent of any sexual interest; indeed, these works would have been seen as the very antithesis of the erotic."
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Original Language: English
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Michael Hatt (contributing author), Henry Scott Tuke (New Haven: Yale University Press) by Cicely Robinson (editor), p. 113
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Scott_Tuke
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Henry Scott Tuke
Henry Scott Tuke (12 June 1858 – 13 March 1929), was an English visual artist; primarily a painter, but also a photographer. His most notable work was in the Impressionist style, and he is best known for his paintings of nude boys and young men.
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