Just Because

Keon Davis by diamondmenlive.com

In the present situation, I just felt like posting a picture I like
to show that some things are still enjoyable exactly as normal.
I love the 'grow-back ' on this man's chest! (click to expand!)

Muscular Sailor

Boimon (Boim) Solomon Samsonovich «Champion of the Cup» 1954

It gets boring on long voyages, a sailor getting some exercise and body building in.

By the Russian artist Boimon (Boim) Solomon Samsonovich (1899-1978) 
 The title is puzzling, is this a Navy Champion showing off to his shipmates
or an informal contest to be Champion of the Ship?

A nice picture at first sight, but it's actually rather flat and puzzling on closer inspection. His crew-mates look on with interest but are noticeably separated and detached. Two men are stripped to the waist but the rendering of their bodies is scrupulously proper and vague. Compare with Animal Strength which is similarly distantly observed, but infuses much more masculine interest in the half stripped figure. You get the feeling the artist in 'Champion' is trying to say something but cannot bring himself to articulate it. The pose of the seated figure, perhaps, hints at greater interest and deeper 'emotions'.

This artist's painting often have a strong nautical flavour, but are usually more panoramic in style than this one, somewhat in the vein of Dutch Marine paintings showing general activity on the water. There is another somewhat like this, however, seen below.

 

Boimon (Boim) Solomon Samsonovich - "Telnyashka" (1953)

'Telnyashka' is the Russian name for the undershirt this rating is washing on the deck. 
It's a similarly tantalising image from a gay point of view. 

Samsonovich had a distinguished career in the Soviet Art Establishment producing numerous images in the prescribed style of the regime showing ordinary people and heroic military types (see Boimon (Boim) Solomon Samsonovich). However in early 1953 Stalin died and the regime changed. These two images immediately follow that momentous event and one might suppose that there's an inkling of liberation in these pictures. The commentary at the link above gives no clue to this but if you check the other paintings shown there you will see another powerful interest running through his work which I'm not going to specify here but which seem to warrant comparison with Scott-Tuke. 

Sultry Office Hunk

(model and photographer not identified)

Even if he's fully clothed this is a great picture of the office hunk as you'd like him to be.
The tight-fitting clothing is very 'mitchmen' and would turn many heads.

The open neck reveals little except some attractive chest 'grow-back'

but it seems to create a curious disconnection of the head.

as though it's bursting out of the tightly buttoned up clothing.

The braces make a nice pairing for my 'Pants Dropper' picture for October 2019

The Enigma of Super Strength

Julia Cross - 'Herakles' Avengers Tarot card

A curious take on the Avengers family of superheroes.

Amid the ruins of another beaten villain's empire,

Captain America strips naked to befriend a baby lion.

He's painted as Vulnerable, soft and cuddly, 

but I just wonder, why?
Likewise Herakles (Hercules)?

The allusion to Tarot Cards seems to invoke fateand the workings of destiny
which seems a contradiction for a character so clearly in control of himself.

It's a nice image though. with attractive flesh tones

The technique is also quite interesting, 

The design borrowed from from the early 1900's

predates Captain America, methinks.

Perhaps I'm missing something.

 The other images in the Tarot series of Julia Cross
 are rather less interesting from a mitchmen point of view.

Pick Up Your Bed

Mark Tsarevsky - 'Pick up your bed' by David Vance

David Vance conjures up the impression of a nomad.

Minimal possesions, have bed will travel.

His saucy, sagging pants cock a snook at conventional souls.

Judging by his physique though, he's not destitute

and can still afford his gym fees.

Mark Tsarevsky by David Vance

Corner Time

'Bobby' by Richard Laeton

A study of a pensive man with an exceptionally shapely body.

Richard Laeton employs colours freely using exuberant brushwork.

He's caught the man's body highlights and shadowing nicely here.

Not so sure about the background though - is that a fire in the corner?

Visit Richard Laeton's website

Pants-Dropper

Another example of clothing flattering a model's body shape.

The V-shape of the braces artfully echoes the natural taper of the torso. 

Their taut line emphasises the undulations of musculature,

detouring around the mounds or jumping across the canyons.

With a slightly naughty point of convergence

But braces are not meant to be in contact with skin.

It's slightly shocking and dissolute combination

Implying undress, yet emphasising decency. 

I don't know the model or photographer yet.