Eugène Jansson has portrayed himself as an elegant dandy, surrounded by naked men posing at the naval bath house. The muscular, heroic body, inspired by ancient models, was central to the male ideal of the turn of the century, an ideal to be attained by physical exercise and sunbathing. The picture was painted from a homoerotic perspective, at a time when sexual acts between men were illegal. This boundary-crossing subculture was a hidden but important part of the development of the modern city.