Post-War Friends: Paintings and Drawings by Peter Samuelson

The Gay Men's Press, Published 1987. Paperback with French flaps, 47 pp.; 21 cm; illustrated with color and black-and-white plates. In very good condition. Glossy pictorial wrappers, front cover reproducing Samuelson's portrait Irish Mike. Mild shelf wear, with light bumping to cover edges and corners. Binding tight. Otherwise unmarked. Peter Samuelson (born 1912) was an English painter and draughtsman, a romantic realist who spent decades depicting young working men and everyday scenes. This collection, introduced by the art critic John Russell Taylor, gathers his portraits and figure studies, several reproduced in color, among them Irish Mike, John the Shoemaker, Tony Howard (James Dean), and Self-portrait in the Bird Room. Issued by The Gay Men's Press as part of its list documenting gay and homoerotic art. [From back cover] Peter Samuelson (a name unknown to most lovers of English art) has been painting and drawing people and scenes from everyday life for many decades. The years after the Second World War were trying times of reconstruction, but also full of hope and adventure. These post-war years had a definite style and ambiance that represented a new and exciting approach, a break from pre-war elitism and an attempt to embrace the everyday person. The war had broken down all sorts of barriers and now for the first time youth burst through and became the arbiter of taste. Today these pictures from ordinary life provoke nostalgia and curiosity, and in their way recreate for us today a je-ne-sais-quoi of the times.…