George Quaintance 1902 - 1957
American, Painter

Born to a farming family in Stanley, Virginia, (date believed to be between 1902 and 1915, as variously stated by the artist), Quaintance moved to New York in his early twenties, later relocating to Los Angeles. At the end of the 40s or very early 50s he moved to a ranch in Arizona where he was surrounded by cowboys, Latino lovers and his favorite desert scenery. He became something of a legend among gay men when his work was first published in Physique Pictorial in the early 50s. It has been said that his floridly romantic fantasies of beautiful men were the gay male counterpart of the Varga and Petty pin-up girls of the period: "but with a lot more narrative juice."

The Art of George Quaintance (Jannsen Verlag, Berlin, 1990).

Michael Bronski, Blatant male pulchritude: the art of George Quaintance and Bruce Weber's Bear Pond, Art Papers vol. 16, no. 4 (July-August 1992). 26-9.

Michael Bronski, The lost language of desire: Why gay men can't really talk about sex, Gay Community News: Boston (Fall 1993) 4.