Eugen Sandow

1 portrait matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Nudes and naked figures'
- 'Image on website'

Eugen Sandow

probably by Warwick Brookes
bromide postcard print, 1900s
4 7/8 in. x 3 1/4 in. (123 mm x 82 mm) image size
Bequeathed by David Dean, 1976
Photographs Collection
NPG x28055

Sitterback to top

Eugen Sandow (1867-1925), Wrestler and strongman. Sitter in 3 portraits.

Artistback to top

Warwick Brookes (1843-1929), Photographer. Artist associated with 5 portraits.

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1900back to top

Current affairs

The Conservatives return to power, after the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury calls a general election, known as the 'Khaki election', on the back of huge jingoistic support for the Boer War.
The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) is founded from a coalition of socialist groups; they win two seats in the 1900 election and Ramsay Macdonald is appointed secretary. The Labour politician Keir Hardie is also returned to Parliament for Merthyr Tydfilin Wales.

Art and science

German physicist Max Planck proposes the concept of the quantum theory. Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is published. In the text, Freud outlines his theory of dream analysis, crucial to the study of the unconscious, and introduces key concepts in psychoanalysis, such as the Ego.
The Paris International Exhibition, attended by more than 50 million people and including over 76,000 exhibitors, marks the heyday of Art Nouveau.

International

In China the Boxer rebellion takes place. The Boxers were anti-imperialist and against foreign influence in trade, religion, politics and technology in the final years of the Manchu rule. The Boxers invade Beijing, killing 230 foreigners and Chinese Christians. The rebellion is suppressed by a multinational coalition of 20,000 troops, with China being forced to pay large war reparations, contributing to growing nationalist resentment against the Qing dynasty.

Tell us more back to top

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Peter Berry

19 March 2018, 15:57

Although I am not able to give definitive information about who was the photographer of this particular portrait, it is highly likely to be Warwick Brookes of 350 Oxford Rd. Manchester. Sandow married Brookes’s daughter Blanche at Manchester Cathedral in 1894, and her father had become deeply involved in Sandow’s career by taking many promotional photographs, and later entering into business with him together with Blanche’s brother, also Warwick, where they opened physical culture centres in London, linked with interested parties such as King Edward V, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the War Dept. to assist in the physical fitness training of recruited soldiers. The shared business interest lasted until the outbreak of WW1. Sandow died in 1925 in unusual circumstances, officially said to be as a result of lifting Conan Doyle’s car out of a ditch after it had left the road, causing a brain haemorrhage. The National Portrait Gallery already holds Warwick Brookes portraits, the subject being Sir Henry Irving. Brookes was a nationally recognised pioneering photographer, the nephew of my great great grandfather, also Warwick Brookes 1808-1882, who was a nationally recognised Manchester artist in the pre-Raphaelite style, with drawings in the V&A, the British Museum, and others. Brookes the photographer often worked with theatrical links to promotional imagery. Sandow was world famous in his own lifetime, and undertook several world tours under his manager Florenz Ziegfeld Junior, who also happened to be best man at his wedding to Blanche Brookes.

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