On the eve of World War II, Marsden Hartley created a series of powerful male figure paintings based on Maine fishermen, backwoodsmen, and athletes. His model for Flaming American was a swimmer from Yale University whom Hartley met when staying with the young man’s aunt and uncle during the summer of 1939. The following year, this picture was shown at the Hudson Walker Gallery in New York, along with the painting of a boxer, Madawaska – Acadian Light-Heavy. The athletes’ primitive poses recall Archaic Greek sculptures of kouroi (nude youths). Both paintings were presented as wall panels for a gymnasium – a venue for healthy sport – enabling Hartley to exhibit a homoeroticism that went unrecognized at the time.