Mathias Ilseng reenacting a sculpture by Johan Peter Molin

Their faces are pretty calm in the midst of a knife fight?? I would think there would be some grimacing.

Here they are without the wigs. Both photos are from the 1890's.

And this is the original sculpture- a bit more dramatic than the reenactment.

In the Scandinavian countries, Neoclassicism remained a potent presence in the nineteenth century. In Sweden Johann Peter Molin was torn between a Neoclassical training and Romantic inclinations as a result of a stay in Paris from 1858. He executed the Knife Fight in Paris in 1858-59 and showed it in the 1862 Salon. The work combines celebration of the athletic nude with an anecdotal content redolent of extreme violence, the two fighters being roped together and thus obliged to fight to the death.

The original looks far more vicious.

This was, in fact, not uncommon. The physical culture movement that began in the late 1800s and was the forerunner of modern fitness/bodybuilding ran into something of a problem with photographic depiction. People wanted to display their hard-worked-on bodies, but the mores of the time wouldn't allow the display of flesh unless it was "artistic." So physical culture enthusiasts had themselves photographed re-enacting sculpture...Eugen Sandow (the World's Most Perfect Man and father of bodybuilding) was frequently photographed nearly nude recreating Roman gladiator statures and other classical works. It was the way he promoted himself without being seen as vulgar.This was also the origin of early to mid 20th century gay male porn, since it provided opportunities to look at classically attractive male bodies, This reached, IMO, its apex with the Hercules and other "sword and sandal" films of the late 50s-early 60s ("Billy do you like movies about gladiators?" -- Peter Graves, Airplane; "If you want something visual/that's not too abyssymal/We could take in an old STEVE REEVES movie" -- Frankenfurter, The Rocky Horror Show). And now you know.

Thank you.

Though in this case they are wearing these 'naked suits'?