"EROS"
Ernst Georg Hildebrand
1955
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The peculiar duality of Ernst Georg Martin Hildebrand (1906-1991).
German painter, grandson of eminent painter Ernst Wilhelm Hildebrand, lived and worked in Sweden after WW II. He married a Swedish lady in 1934, two children (born in 1934 and 1935). He was prolific creator of landscapes, cityscapes, altar pieces, all very proper. A few discreetly ambiguous men with horses...
And then: In the years 1940-60, while being a husband and father, the "sideline" that we know him best for: Huge amount of blatantly homoerotic drawings of twinks with lots of make-up and big stiffies, groped and molested by older men and satyrs, orgies etc, all very, very, gay as well as explicit. Really horny stuff.
Were these drawings just his way of vicariously living a deep-rooted dream, or do they signify an active double life? There are no records of male lovers. Female nudes are non-existent in his canon, nor is there straight eroticism.
He stayed with his wife until the end, they're buried together.
Ernst Hildebrand, self-portrait and a photograph at the age of 54, 1887.
Photo: Löscher&Petsch Königl. Hof-Photographen, Berlin.
