Guglielmo Plüschow
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
photographer who moved to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and became known for his nude photos of local youths, predominantly males (but also females). Being the cousin of Wilhelm von Gloeden
Wilhelm von Gloeden
Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys, which usually featured props such as wreaths or amphoras suggesting a setting in the Greece or Italy of antiquity...
, who, despite taking up nude photography later than Plüschow, soon overshadowed him, Plüschow was several times at odds with the law and charged with corruption of minors. Today, his photography is recognized for its artistic merits, even though it is generally considered somewhat inferior to von Gloeden
Wilhelm von Gloeden
Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys, which usually featured props such as wreaths or amphoras suggesting a setting in the Greece or Italy of antiquity...
's on account of his less graceful handling of lighting and the sometimes strangely stilted poses of his models.
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Biography
Not much is known about Plüschow's early life, except that he was born in WismarWismar
Wismar , is a small port and Hanseatic League town in northern Germany on the Baltic Sea, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,about 45 km due east of Lübeck, and 30 km due north of Schwerin. Its natural harbour, located in the Bay of Wismar is well-protected by a promontory. The...
as the eldest of seven brothers and sisters. His father Friedrich Carl Eduard Plüschow was an illegitimate child of Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Frederick Louis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a hereditary prince of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, one of the constituent states of the German Confederation...
and the family home was Schloss Plüschow.
In the early 1870s, he moved to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and changed his first name from "Wilhelm" to its Italian equivalent "Guglielmo". Initially making a living as a wine merchant, he soon turned to male and female nude photography
Nude photography
Nude photography is a style of art photography which depicts the nude human body as a study. Nude photography should be distinguished from glamour photography, which places more emphasis on the model and her/his sexuality, and treats the model as the primary subject. Nude photography should also be...
. Later he also worked in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, among others doing contract work like taking pictures of Nino Cesarini, the young lover of Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen
Jacques d'Adelsward-Fersen
Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen was a novelist and poet of the early 20th century; his modern fame is based on a mid-century fictionalised biography by Roger Peyrefitte....
at the latter's house Villa Lysis
Villa Lysis
Villa Lysis — initially called La Gloriette, today also known as Villa Fersen — is a villa on Capri built by industrialist and poet Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen in 1905...
on Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
.
One of Plüschow's more famous models was Vincenzo Galdi
Vincenzo Galdi
Vincenzo Galdi was an Italian model and photographer.-Life:He was born in Naples in 1871. He started as a model and pupil of photographer Wilhelm von Plüschow while he worked in Naples, then he moved to Rome with him, and eventually he ran a studio of his own in Roma between 1900 circa and 1907,...
(pictured left), who was probably one of Plüschow's lovers. Galdi later became a photographer in his own right, as well as an art gallery owner.
In 1902, Plüschow, who was gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
like von Gloeden, was charged with "common procuration" and "seduction of minors" and had to spend eight months in jail
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. Another scandal followed in 1907, and in 1910 Plüschow left Italy for good and returned to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.