March 16, 2025 No Comments  

A Look Into The Art History of Nordic Gays

Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki—three of the world’s happiest cities, also the most progressive, and the most gay-friendly.  But did you know they also have a lot of fascinating LGBTQ+ history?

Here are a few of the famous LGBTQ+ people from these cities’ past.

Hans Christian Andersen is a great example.  The picture we get from his diaries and letters is that he was bisexual but also asexual, i.e. that he had crushes on both men and women but did not act or preferred not to act on them sexually.

February 22, 2025 No Comments  

The LGBTQ+ History of Ancient Greece

In what culture did the king of the gods, the greatest heroes, and the greatest general all have boyfriends?  Ancient Greece, of course.  Many cultures have viewed same-sex relations more positively than America traditionally did—but no-one tops the ancient Greeks.  Male-male relations occupied a key role in their culture:  they were thought of as the way that young men learned the best and most masculine virtues and skills from older men.  Especially courage in battle!

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August 12, 2021 1 Comment  

Scandals and Secrets of Père Lachaise Cemetery Trailer

Père Lachaise is Paris’ great monumental cemetery, with fabulous tombs and many famous “residents” along its charmingly shady, hilly paths (with great views of Paris!). The famous include Chopin, Bizet, and Jim Morrison—who died in Paris, probably of an overdose—but also many women and LGBTQ people. Oscar Wilde’s controversial tomb (frequently covered in lipstick kisses) is the most visited in the cemetery, but there is plenty more to see, including the tombs of Proust, Sarah Bernhardt, Isadora Duncan, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, Colette, Maria Callas and Edith Piaf.

Watch the full tour here Full video $14

Scandals and Secrets of Père Lachaise Cemetery from Andrew Lear on Vimeo.

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January 13, 2021 No Comments  

The Double Lives of Iconic Gay Artists, by Ignacio Darnaude

Gay artists have faced a daunting dilemma since the beginning of time: keeping their sexuality hidden or being out with their art and lives and, in doing so, risking rejection and even prosecution. This is why many gay artists, who couldn’t express themselves openly, were forced to live double lives.  They created mainstream work, which they showed openly, as well as homoerotic work, which they hid, circulated just among a circle of friends, or destroyed.

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January 6, 2021 No Comments  

LGBTQ Rulers and their Fairy Tale Castles

You might not think there have been many LGBTQ rulers in world history.  But you would be wrong!  From Alexander the Great’s Macedonia to Mad Ludwig’s Bavaria and beyond, there have been rulers (and members of ruling families) with many different sexualities and gender identities throughout world history.  And a number of them, unsurprisingly, have left behind fantastic palaces and castles.

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December 23, 2020 No Comments  

More Zoom Events in 2021

At the end of this very real annus terribilis, I want to say a few words to you, our loyal readers and attendees.  Above all, thanks!  Thanks for keeping Oscar Wilde Tours alive by reading our blog, attending our Zoom tours, watching our YouTube videos, contributing to our fundraisers—in short, for being a fabulously loyal community.  When the pandemic hit the US, in March, it seemed likely to kill the company completely.  Who would have thought that 9 months later, as the pandemic continued to rage, we would be putting on our 28th Zoom tour, with audiences regularly over 100, and have gathered over 28,000 views for our videos? It’s been a hard year, but ours is a tiny, flourishing corner.  And we have a lot more coming after the holidays!  Want to find out more?

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December 9, 2020 No Comments  

Queer British Art

In a little over 100 years, between 1861 and 1967, Britain went from punishing male homosexuality with the death penalty to decriminalisation across the vast majority of the country. That may seem like a glacial pace but when we consider the World Health Organisation didn’t officially declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder until 1992, the UK seems ahead of its time. One of the easiest ways to trace the societal and legal shift in attitudes towards sexuality that took place in the UK at this time is to look at the artistic output of the nation. To see how British society went from treating artists like Oscar Wilde and Simeon Solomon as criminals, whose careers were both ruined by ‘gross indecency’ trials, to accepting and embracing artists like David Hockney and Francis Bacon as national heroes is a fascinating journey, and one on which we can all travel thanks to the work of the Tate gallery in London.

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July 2, 2019 No Comments  

Penises in Art on the Unhung Heroes Tour

Penises in art are a bigger theme than you might think.  After all, what is the number one question people ask in the Greek and Roman collection of any museum?  There is no competition:  why the penises in Classical art are smaller than real-life average adult penises.  And the second is:  whether Christians really broke off the penises that are missing from so many male nude statues.

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July 1, 2019 No Comments  

First LGBT trail in a US museum!

Over the last few years, several museums in Europe have organized an LGBT trail, i.e. a self-guided trail following LGBT themes through the museums’ collections.  The British Museum and the Prado are both prominent examples.  No museum in the US has ever put together such a trail until now, when the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford has launched one.  The trail, called “Out On View,” covers 16 artworks spread through the museum.

The Wadsworth has a particularly rich LGBT collection.  This is partly due to the influence of the Director in the 20’s-40’s, A, Everett “Chick” Austin.  Austin was an important member of the (closeted) LGBT art scene in pre-war New York.  He created a connection between the Wadsworth and a number of prominent LGBT artists of his day, while also purchasing a number of homoerotic works for the collection from earlier periods.  It is an ideal museum for America’s first LGBT trail.