Jim French (born James Thomas French, July 14, 1932 – June 16, 2017) was an American artist, illustrator, photographer, filmmaker, and publisher. He is best known for his association with Colt Studio which he, using the pseudonym Rip Colt, (and with business partner Lou Thomas) created in late 1967. Thomas parted from the endeavor in 1974 leaving French to continue to build what would become one of the most successful gay male erotica companies in the U.S. French left a legacy of

homoerotic Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homose ...

images in artwork, illustrations, photo sets, slides, film, fine-art photographs, magazines, books and calendars that presented his work exclusively and set a new standard in photography of men. French began drawing and photographing male erotica in the mid-1960s while working as an illustrator and artist for Madison Avenue advertising agencies. His first published book, ''Man'', was issued in 1972. It was one of the first photo books of homoerotic full frontal nudes ever. Other books include ''Another Man'', ''Jim French Men'', ''Quorum'', ''Opus Deorum'', ''Masc.'', ''The Art of Jim French'' and ''The Art of the Male Nude''. Publication of Colt magazines began in 1969 with the digest-size "Manpower!". During the 1970s, French began marketing his short films in 8mm format; they were soon collected on video-cassette format, which were remastered for DVD format in the 1990s. French's artwork and photography has been hailed as “iconic, groundbreaking, and singularly influential.” Victor Skrebneski writes in his introduction to the monograph, ''Opus Deorum'': "Jim French, master photographer, demonstrates controlled intensity and passion for his work. His images bridge time, lock memory, fire provocation. That is his art." French died in his home in Palm Springs, California, at age 84.

Early life

French was formally trained at the

Philadelphia Museum School of Art The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (PMSIA), also referred to as the School of Applied Art, was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on February 26, 1876, as both a museum and teaching institution. This was in response to t ...

from 1950 to 1954 and went on active duty in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in 1955, having been in the reserves for two years prior to his enlisting. He was honorably discharged from the service in 1957. French settled in New York and pursued a successful career as an illustrator and artist for Madison Avenue advertising agencies. His work appeared in advertisements for Neiman Marcus and other high-end department stores. He also created designs for textiles for the noted designer, Tamis Keefe. French also created a number of portrait drawings for use as album art for Columbia Records. Those portraits included Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, and Maria Callas.

Lüger Studio

At the suggestion of an Army contact who had seen some of his early unpublished homoerotic drawings done under the name Arion, he and French formed a partnership to start a

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...

company named "The Lüger Studio." "Kurt Lüger" became the pseudonym for French. The name was chosen for its implied association with the German

Luger pistol The Pistole Parabellum—or Parabellum-Pistole (Pistol Parabellum), commonly known as just Luger or Luger P08 is a toggle-locked recoil-operated semi-automatic pistol. The Luger was produced in several models and by several nations from 1898 ...

. While the Arion drawings had been playful sketches of

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Long ...

life and similar scenes (influenced by two of his favorite artists,

George Petty George Brown Petty IV (April 27, 1894 – July 21, 1975) was an American pin-up artist. His pin-up art appeared primarily in ''Esquire'' and Fawcett Publications's ''True'' but was also in calendars marketed by ''Esquire'', ''True'' and Ridgid T ...

and

Alberto Vargas Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chávez (9 February 1896 – 30 December 1982) was a Peruvian-American painter of pin-up girls. He is often considered one of the most famous of the pin-up artists. Numerous Vargas paintings have sold and continue to sel ...

), the drawings created as "Lüger" featured more

hypermasculine Hypermasculinity is a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality. This term has been used ever since the research conducted by Donald L. Mosher and Ma ...

subjects: construction men, men in leather, surfers, cowboys, wrestlers, and sailors. The first appearance of a Lüger Studio drawing (two drawings from his "Cowboy" series) was in the May–June 1966 issue of ''The Young Physique.'' Photographic copies of the drawing sets were offered for purchase through mail order and were advertised in various magazines available at the time: ''The Young Physique'', ''Mars'', ''Muscleboy'', ''Sir Gee'', ''Male Classics'', and ''Fizeek Art Quarterly''. These copies were offered as thematic sets of either six or eight drawings. Lüger Studios also produced four different photographic sets of various male models. To avoid legal troubles, Lüger Studio offerings contained minimal frontal nudity but were nonetheless erotic and humorously creative in their suggestiveness. French's artwork was favorably received and was commended for its "unbridled imagination and a fantastic technique."

Colt Studio

Eventually French's partner bought out his share of Lüger Studio, freeing French and a new partner, Lou Thomas, to establish another business called Colt Studio (a reference to American west firearm imagery, although the company soon adopted a logo of a stallion.) Having worked for nearly a year to produce the first drawings and photographs to be offered by the new company, Colt was begun in late 1967. Once more the images were offered in sets of prints by mail and the company quickly became successful. But after fifteen years in New York, often traveling to California to take advantage of the weather and abundance of models, French decided to move west. In 1974 he bought out his partner's share of the business leaving Lou Thomas to start his own company (Target Studio). French made his home in the Hollywood Hills. From the Colt Studio offices in

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

, he continued to run the most successful

male physique photography Physique photography is a tradition of photography of nude or semi-nude (usually muscular) men which was largely popular between the early 20th century and the 1960s. Physique photography originated with the physical culture and bodybuilding movem ...

company in America, marketing his work to

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

men. For thirty-six years, Colt Studio offered the highest quality male erotica commercially available. During his career, French worked with over 830 models. Among them were Ledermeister, Chris Dickerson, George O’Mara, John Tristram, Alan Albert, Bernie Booth, Dakota, Stoner, Erron, John Pruitt, Gordon Grant, Bruno, Jake Tanner, Jim Morris, Mike Davis, Nick Chase, Mike Betts, Rick Wolfmier, Pat Sutton, Andreas Stock, Danny Collier, Ed Dinakos, Billy Herrington, Franco Corelli, JD Amos, Doug Perry, Tony Romano, Ken Ryker, Tom Chase, Tony Ganz, Steve Kelso, Pete Kuzak, Carl Hardwick, and Wade Neff. French was the first to photograph Drew Okun also providing him with his professional name, “Al Parker.” In 2003, French sold Colt Studio to former Falcon Studios director John Rutherford and his business partner Tom Settle. The rebranded company, "Colt Studio Group," continues to operate, adding new content, but with digital rights to the drawings, photographs, and films created by French.

Plagiarism of work

One illustration of French's, entitled 'Longhorns - Dance', achieved worldwide notoriety when it was appropriated by the late

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...

manager and fashion designer

Malcolm McLaren Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English impresario, visual artist, singer, songwriter, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, notable for combining these activities in an inventive and provoc ...

in 1975 as the basis for artwork for a

T-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...

sold through Sex, the King's Road boutique McLaren operated with

Vivienne Westwood Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (née Swire; born 8 April 1941) is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. Westwood came to public notice when she m ...

. Depicting two cowboys facing each other, each naked from the waist down apart from their boots, 'Longhorns – Dance' was initially sold as one of a pack of six 5″ x 7″ prints in 1969. Reproduced in the book ''The Colt Album'', published in Britain by John S. Barrington in 1973, its appearance in issue 7 of French's magazine ''Manpower!'', published in 1974, piqued McLaren's interest when he acquired a copy in a shop on

Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher St ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. McLaren added imagined dialogue between the two figures to express “the frustration and boredom I felt at the time”. Alan Jones, a friend of McLaren's, was the first person to wear the design in public, and was promptly arrested and charged with “showing an obscene print in a public place” under the Vagrancy Act of 1824. The following day Sex was raided by the police, who impounded shirts bearing the design. Indecency charges were levelled at McLaren. The uproar became a

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

issue when Labour MP

Colin Phipps Colin Barry Phipps (23 July 1934 – 10 January 2009) was a British petroleum geologist and chairman of several petroleum companies. From 1974 to 1979 he was a Labour Party Member of Parliament, but in the 1980s he joined the Social Democratic P ...

called on Home Secretary

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lab ...

to review the outmoded law. “It would appear to me to be more logical for a prosecutor to have to demonstrate a specific public hurt in matters of taste rather than being able to rely on antique laws,” Phipps wrote to Jenkins. Despite the outcry, Jones was fined and McLaren was arraigned to appear in court and was also later fined. Subsequently, when the 'Cowboys' T-shirt was worn by members of the Sex Pistols such as

Sid Vicious John Simon Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. Despite dying in 1979 at age 21, he remains an icon of the ...

, French's illustration became one of the key visual provocations of the

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

movement, though French was not impressed when Westwood continued to reproduce the image with McLaren's dialogue. In 2011, French's spokesman Nat Gozzano told blogger

Paul Gorman Paul Gorman is a writer whose journalism has appeared in many of the world's leading publications. He has also published several books on art, design, fashion, media and music and curated exhibitions in Europe and the US. Journalism From 1978, ...

: “The whole drawing was simply jacked. The illustration was drawn by Jim French well before McLaren and Westwood made a whole bunch of money (and still do apparently) stealing it.”

State of Man publications

French published eight volumes of fine art male photography under his own publishing imprint, State of Man. * ''Man'' (1972) * ''Another Man'' (1974) * ''Quorum'' (1976) * ''The Art of Jim French: the Nude Male'' (1989) * ''Men'' (1990) * ''Opus Deorum'' (1992) * ''The Art of the Male Nude'' (1993) * ''Masc.: The Color Photography of Jim French'' (1999)

Other publications

Felix Lance Falkon, ''A Historic Collection of Gay Art'' (San Diego: Greenleaf Classics, 1972.) Although mistakenly identifying the work as by “Jacques,” Falkon concluded his text with two drawings by French along with the effusive comment that

rench The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau (Baden (Land), Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is ...

"is probably the best artist ever to work in the field of homoerotica." ''Like A Moth To A Flame'' (New York: Little Bear Press, 2003.) A collection of early 1970s photographs by French of the model, David Scrivanek. Scrivanek's nom-de-porn was “Erron.” Robert Mainardi, editor, and Jim French, ''Jim French Diaries: The Creator of Colt Studio'' (Berlin: Bruno Gmünder, 2011.) A large volume with substantial information regarding the life and work of French. ''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: Jim French Polaroids'' (New York: Antinous Press, 2013.) A collection of French's 1960s and early 1970s Polaroid photographs. Accompanied by a very brief text, the volume was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name at the gallery, ClampArt, New York. Ian Berry and Jack Shear, ''Borrowed Light: Selections from the Jack Shear Collection'' (Saratoga Springs, New York: The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum, 2017.) Includes photographs by French.

Exhibitions

*''The Galleria: a Collection of Physique Art.'' The Studio Bookshop, New York, 1969. See advertisement in "The Silent Men 4" (NY: Times Square Studio) 1969. French's drawings were included with the work of others in this early exhibition of gay erotica. *''Jim French: Still Point.''

Wessel + O'Connor Fine Art Wessel may refer to: * Wessel (name), including a list of people with the name * Wessel Islands, a group of islands forming part of the Northern Territory, Australia, named after the Dutch ship ''Wesel'' in 1636 ** Cape Wessel, the most northerly ...

, New York, June 2 - July 9, 1994. Black and white photographs of the male figure taken by French between 1968 and 1994. See “Art Exhibitions,” New York Magazine 27:23 (6 June 1994): 80. *''Jim French: Masc.'' Wessel + O’Connor Fine Art, New York, June 26 - August 27, 1999. *''Appearances: Photographic Portraits.'' Wessel + O’Connor Fine Art, New York, September - October 2001. French's work was included alongside of the work of Horst P. Horst, Blake Little, George Platt Lynes, Robert Mapplethorpe, and others. *''The Photography of Punk.'' SHOWStudio, London, November 2013. French exhibited both drawings and Polaroid photography as context to the 1975 appropriation (by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood) of his erotic cowboy imagery. The show was curated by Nick Knight. *''Photography by the Legendary Jim French'' Woodman/Shimko Gallery, Palm Springs, CA, November 1–21, 2013 *''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: Polaroids by Jim French.'' ClampArt, New York, November 21 – December 21, 2013. Featured French's original 1960s Polaroid photography. *''Classical Nudes and the Making of Queer History'' Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York NY, October 17, 2013 – January 4, 2014. Featured artists include James Bidgood, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Paul Cadmus, F. Holland Day, Jim French, Jean Jacques Pradier, William von Gloeden, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe and Lyle Ashton Harris. *''STROKE: From Under the Mattress to the Museum Walls'' Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York NY, March 28 – May 25, 2014. Featured artists included Neel Bate (Blade), Michael Breyette, Michael Broderick, Harry Bush, Jim French (Colt), Oliver Frey, Kevin King (BEAU), Michael Kirwan, Touko Laaksonen (Tom of Finland), Antonio Lopez (Antonio), David Martin, Donald Merrick (Domino), Kent Neffendorf (Kent), Olaf Odegaard (Olaf), Mel Odom, Dominic Orejudos (Etienne), Benoît Prévot, George Stavrinos, Rex, Robert W. Richards, Richard Rosenfeld, William Schmelling (Hun), George Quaintance and Frank Webber (Bastille). *''Jim French Before Colt.'' Nat Reed Gallery, Palm Springs CA, May 17 - June 20, 2014. Featured examples of French's 1950s and 1960s commercial artwork including early illustrative and design work for such clients as

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

and fabric house Tammis Keefe *''Jim French.'' Wessel + O’Connor Fine Art, Lambertville, NJ, May 17 - July 13, 2014. Featured French's original 1960s Polaroid photography. *''Sex Crimes.'' ClampArt, New York, August 15 – September 28, 2019. Included French's original 1960s Polaroid photography. *''AllTogether.'' Tom of Finland Foundation (USA) and The Community (France.) Studio Cannaregio (Venice, April 22 - June 26, 2022) and The Community Centre (Paris, May 9 - June 26, 2022.) The exhibition features two important early works of French.

Later life

In 2013, French relocated to Palm Springs, California. He continued to offer limited edition art prints from his photographic archives as well as original Polaroid photographs taken as studies for his drawings. French died at home at age 84. He is survived by husband Jeffery Turner.

References

External links

Michael C. Oliveira, Historical Note (Finding Aid to the Colt Studio Photographs Coll2014-122) University of Southern CaliforniaIan Lewandowski, "Jim French, Male Beauty, and Languages of Desire"Miss Rosen, "The Man Who Changed Male Erotica ForeverJim French - Wessel + O’Connor Fine ArtJim French , Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: PolaroidsArtist Spotlight: Jim French's PolaroidsIn the Galleries: Jim French, Before ColtJim French Original Art
* (as "Rip Colt") {{DEFAULTSORT:French, Jim 1932 births 2017 deaths Nude photography American male artists Artists from California Gay artists LGBT people from California American LGBT photographers Photographers from California 20th-century American photographers Gay male erotica American pornographers University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni Gay male erotica artists 20th-century American male artists