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Paul Cadmus
1904–1999
Death placeWeston, Connecticut, United States of America
BirthplaceNew York, New York, United States of America
BiographyIn his paintings and prints, Paul Cadmus satirized modern American social mores and character types with particular attention to the erotic bond in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Cadmus was born in poverty in New York City. Both his parents were professionally trained painters, but his father was forced to earn a living as a commercial lithographer. Cadmus left school at the age of fifteen to study at the National Academy of Design, a conservative institution where he honed his skills in drawing the human figure. After graduation, he worked as a layout artist for an advertising firm while attending evening life drawing classes at the more progressive Art Students League. Realist painter Jared French (1905–88) introduced Cadmus to the meticulous technique of egg tempera painting and encouraged him to abandon commercial art for a fine art career. In 1931, the two departed for two years of travel and painting in Europe, where Cadmus came under the influence of the works of Italian Renaissance masters. He was also influenced by such social realist artists of New York as Reginald Marsh whose curvaceous figures in tight-fitting clothing he emulated.
On his return to New York in 1933, Cadmus joined the new Public Works of Art Project (part of the so-called WPA), a federal artists’ relief program. In the conservative social climate of the Great Depression, his 1934 painting The Fleet’s In! (1933, Navy Art Gallery, Washington Navy Yard), which shows drunken American sailors in lustful pursuit of a good time, precipitated a national scandal and propelled Cadmus into public view. Other works he produced under government sponsorship, including several mural projects, were also controversial. The biting social commentary of his images continued to draw attention, with an unprecedented seven thousand visitors attending his first solo exhibition, at New York’s Midtown Gallery in 1937.
After World War II, Cadmus continued to show regularly even as his meticulous, hyper-realistic style and traditional egg-tempera technique fell out of favor in an era dominated by large-scale abstract painting. Cadmus used fantasy and abundant, often tongue-in-cheek references to the past, from Greek mythology to Renaissance painting, to comment on contemporary social and sexual mores. He also created paintings and drawings, many depicting his longtime model and companion Jon Anderson, that straightforwardly celebrate the sensual beauty of the male form. From the comic and degrading aspects of simple lust to the ideal of passionate love, human sexuality remained a unifying theme of Cadmus’s work. During the revival of figural art in the 1980s, he was the subject of renewed interest not only for his art but as an early champion of gay identity. Cadmus died at the age of ninety-four at his home in Weston, Connecticut, to which he and Anderson had moved in 1975.
On his return to New York in 1933, Cadmus joined the new Public Works of Art Project (part of the so-called WPA), a federal artists’ relief program. In the conservative social climate of the Great Depression, his 1934 painting The Fleet’s In! (1933, Navy Art Gallery, Washington Navy Yard), which shows drunken American sailors in lustful pursuit of a good time, precipitated a national scandal and propelled Cadmus into public view. Other works he produced under government sponsorship, including several mural projects, were also controversial. The biting social commentary of his images continued to draw attention, with an unprecedented seven thousand visitors attending his first solo exhibition, at New York’s Midtown Gallery in 1937.
After World War II, Cadmus continued to show regularly even as his meticulous, hyper-realistic style and traditional egg-tempera technique fell out of favor in an era dominated by large-scale abstract painting. Cadmus used fantasy and abundant, often tongue-in-cheek references to the past, from Greek mythology to Renaissance painting, to comment on contemporary social and sexual mores. He also created paintings and drawings, many depicting his longtime model and companion Jon Anderson, that straightforwardly celebrate the sensual beauty of the male form. From the comic and degrading aspects of simple lust to the ideal of passionate love, human sexuality remained a unifying theme of Cadmus’s work. During the revival of figural art in the 1980s, he was the subject of renewed interest not only for his art but as an early champion of gay identity. Cadmus died at the age of ninety-four at his home in Weston, Connecticut, to which he and Anderson had moved in 1975.