NOTE

Wellcome Collection, before 1902. Eugene Sandow (Friedrich Wilhelm Müller 1867 - 1925), German bodybuilder and showman, arguably the first man to bring a methodical approach to developing the male physique. He measured the proportions of classical male statues in museum collections so that he could develop his own physique to echo the proportions of the Greek ideal. Firrell crops Sandow’s body in the published artworks so that his face is obscured, indicating that it is the symbolism of the idealised man, rather than the character of Sandow himself, which is of interest to the artist.