Andreas Andersen
The painting by Andreas Andersen that we present today is, frankly, biographical. Andersen depicts his younger brother, at age 22, languidly petting a cat gussied up with a bow, still in bed, while his presumptive bedmate, the American artist John Briggs Potter, gets up and dressed. The scene is so intimate, so immediately relatable, and so unabashed. Hendrik’s blond, boyish good looks; languorous odalisque pose; smooth skin; and youthful build stand in contrast to the 30-year-old Potter’s dark hair, bearded face, and closed-in posture.
Hendrik Andersen, like his brother, was born in Norway and would eventually move to Rome to sculpt massive male nudes for his planned utopian city, which never materialized. Potter would eventually work for Isabella Stewart Gardner (American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts.) in her new museum in Boston. But (and this is the point), the affect of the two of them together is so unforced and familiar that they read as intimates.The fact that they are painted this way in a large-scale painting by Hendrik’s brother insinuates that there was no hesitation about such a potentially public suggestion of their tender closeness.
We present today's work thanks to the Kunstmuseum Basel, where you can see it in the exhibition The First Homosexuals: The Birth of New Identities 1869–1939 until 2 August 2026. The multifaceted presentation frames perspectives on queer communities, intimate portraits, bold life choices, coded desires, and colonial entanglements.
P.S. Here are some of the greatest male nudes in art history! You can also check out our Nudes 50 Postcards Set, a selection of 50 artworks celebrating the human body across time, packed into a box of postcards!