Published in the San Francisco Examiner in 1894, the above illustration depicts the Apollo Belvedere alongside the famed US boxer Peter Jackson and, of course, Eugen Sandow. Disputing the various forms of manly beauty, the response to the cartoon was surprising to say the least. While many lauded Sandow’s physique, others were less than impressed. John Stanton from the California School of Design is quoted as saying,
Peter Jackson to my mind approaches the nearer the elegant proportions of the old Greek statues than Sandow. The lines of his contour of figure are more finely drawn, more delicate than those of Sandow.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that.
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