Paul Spencer Swan (June 5, 1883 – February 1, 1972) was an American painter, sculptor, dancer, poet and actor. Once billed as "the most beautiful man in the world," Swan has come to be looked on as a "gay
camp
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
icon."
Life
Paul Swan was born in
Ashland, Illinois in 1883. He and his family moved to
Crab Orchard, Nebraska
Crab Orchard is a village in Johnson County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2020 census, the village population was 47.
History
Crab Orchard was platted in 1883 when the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was extended to that point. It ...
when he was 6 years old. His mother's religious convictions were disturbed by her son's "strange quirks" such as the elaborate theater productions he made with his sisters' dolls.
Of his Nebraska home, Swan said in 1917 "My people are very orthodox and do not believe in the life I have chosen. They believe it wrong to cultivate personal charm."
As a teenager, Swan moved around various cities in the
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
. He tended to be rejected for his unconventional behavior and
gender nonconformity
Gender variance or gender nonconformity is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A gender-nonconforming person may be variant in their gender identity, being transgender or non-bina ...
, so he cultivated friendships with artists and LGBT figures in the area, including
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and ''My Ántonia''. In 1923, ...
. In 1906 he was able to move to New York where he got a job with
Dilineator magazine drawing ladies hats.
In 1910 Swan saw Russian actress
Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova (Russian: Алла Назимова; born Marem-Ides Leventon, Russian: Марем-Идес Левентон; June 3 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._May_22.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O ...
perform in Ibsen’s play ''
Little Eyolf'' in
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...
. He was inspired to paint her life-sized portrait and send it to her as a gift. She was so pleased that she commissioned Swan to paint four additional portraits. He used the money from the commission to travel to Egypt and Greece. In Greece he began his career as a dancer.
Swan married Helen Palmer Gavit, granddaughter of sculptor
Erastus Dow Palmer, in 1911 or 1912. They had two daughters. Though Swan had a number of other lovers in his life, both men and women, he stayed close with his wife until her death in 1951.
The
aesthetic
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...
, Greek-inspired art and dance styles that Swan learned during this time would remain little changed throughout his life. Swan would reject what he called "all the weird -isms" of "cubism, futurism, post-impressionism."
This classical style was falling out of fashion even at the time that Swan was learning it. His decades of persistence with the outdated style would lead to his eventual perception as camp.
However, the eroticism of Swan's near-nude performances was shocking and innovative for the time. A journalist described the reaction of Paris audiences to shows that Swan starred in: "even this gay city has been shocked really and truly by the prevailing cult of nakedness, whose expositions grow more and more daring."
Swan described himself in 1915 as "the only man in the world who has the courage to take off his clothes and dance."
"What he was doing would make him liable to be in prison," observed Swan biographer Richard Londraville. "He was able to walk through the world much more freely than most homosexuals would at the time. He was very lucky to have a wife that he could fall back on."
Swan become a friend and possibly lover to
Isadora Duncan, pioneer of modern dance. He painted Duncan's portrait in 1922.
His training as a dancer translated to a career as a silent film actor. He appeared in the 1923 film
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
by
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinem ...
, and in other films of the
silent era
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...
.
Swan moved to Paris in the early 1930s. Much of his artwork from this period was lost as a consequence of the
Nazi occupation of Paris
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...
.
His fame in the US had faded during his time overseas, but the war forced him to return. Swan took up residence at a studio in
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
. There he performed weekly dance recitals almost every Sunday evening from 1939 to 1969.
As fashions changed and Swan aged, his weekly dance performances came to be seen as campy.
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
included Swan's dance in ''
Camp
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
'', a 1965 underground film about the camp style.
Swan died in 1972 at age 88 in Bedford Hills, NY.
He is buried in his family's plot in Crab Orchard.
In media
Swan's beauty was referenced in a routine by
Fred
Fred may refer to:
People
* Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Mononym
* Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French
* Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Ro ...
and
Adele Astaire, in which Adele joking scolded Fred "don't think ''you'' look like Paul Swan." This comedic line was reused in the 1927 song ''
Funny Face'' by
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
and
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 2 ...
, recorded by
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
among others.
A play about Swan's dance recitals in later life, ''Paul Swan is Dead and Gone'', ran in New York in 2019.
Gallery
File:Paul Swan - Portrait of Joaquín Nin-Culmell, 1924.jpg, Portrait of Joaquín Nin-Culmell, 1924
File:Bust_of_Willa_Cather.jpg, Bust of Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and ''My Ántonia''. In 1923, ...
in the Nebraska Hall of Fame, 1962
Notes
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:SWan, Paul
1883 births
1972 deaths
People from Cass County, Illinois
People from Johnson County, Nebraska
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American male artists
20th-century American painters
American LGBT artists
20th-century American dancers
Artists from Nebraska