Antinoüs Folio, 1954.

Folio of homoerotic illustrations by Jean Boullet. From a limited edition of 467. 37 pages, unbound. 6 page dialogue prelude to 31 illustrations.

The painter, illustrator, and writer Jean Boullet was one of the definitive, openly gay artists of the French post-war period. Identifying himself as a “painter of male beauty”, Boullet spent much of his time in Northwestern Africa, particularly in Algiers, connecting with what he coined as a gay Mediterranean legacy.

The work presented here is Boullet’s Antinoüs, a folio of 31 illustrations titled after the male lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Much like the later Saint Sebastian, Antinoüs would become a prominent symbol of classical gay culture in the arts, directly referenced in the works of authors like Oscar Wilde and Fernando Pessoa.

Antinoüs died under mysterious circumstances along the Nile river around 130 AD, much to Hadrian’s grief, who later deified his lover as a god. This mirrors Boullet’s own tragic passing in Tébessa, Algeria, around which very few details are known.

Boullet, Jean. Antinoüs. First edition. Nice: Société d’Imprimerie Méditerranéenne, 1954.

12 3/4 x 9 7/8 in. (32.2 x 25 cm.)

Minor tear on the upper left boundary of the dust cover.

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