The Male Nude in Art 2026

“The male nude has always exerted a great attraction on artists and viewers alike,” writes editor Bjorn Köll. “The 13 works of art presented in this calendar reflect the fascinating diversity in the depiction of the unclothed body.”

Köll and publisher Salzgeber picked “The Boxer” (1933) by queer artist Konstantin Somov for the cover and a detail of Michelangelo’s “David” for the back cover. Two popular works and perhaps two unsurprising choices. Things get more interesting with the inside images, most featuring little-known works by Nordic artists born in the second half of the 19^th century (German, Swiss, Austrian, Swedish, Finnish). With the exception of “Standing Bather Seen from Behind” by Cezanne and “Le Cycliste” by Maillol (a sculptor everyone knows for his focus on the female body, much less so on the male body), Köll took the road less traveled and brought us along on a journey of discovery. Discovery of the male form and of the many 19^th century movements (and techniques) that explored it: pointillism (“Après le bain” by Henri Edmond Cross), symbolism (“Regarde vers l’infini” by Ferdinand Hodler), expressionism and post-expressionism (“Kneeling Narcissus” by Anton Kolig, obviously influenced by Kokoschka.)

Only one of these 13 artists is a woman: Finnish painter Venni Soldan-Brofeldt. Salzgeber missed an opportunity here to feature more female artists, their gaze, their desire. And only a handful have worked extensively at the male nude: Eugène Jansson and his athletes (weightlifters and gymnasts); Ludwig von Hofmann and his bathers, his fishermen, his naked men on horseback.

Regardless, this 2026 calendar helps us discover, month after month, the many ways the nude was imagined and re-imagined and re-defined in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries: From the idealized body of “Warrior with Drawn Sword” by Johannes Echarius Carolus Alberti (somewhat reminiscent of Guido Reni), to the deconstruction of beauty in German expressionism. Our personal favorite? “Self-portrait” by Ivan Lönnberg, a Swedish marathon runner who died young at 26. A tribute to youth and, at the same time, the tragedy of its finiteness.