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| Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 – December 12, 1999) was an American artist. He is best known for his paintings and drawings of nude male figures. His works combined elements of eroticism and social critique to produce a style often called magic realism. He painted with egg tempera. |
Cadmus was born on December 17, 1904 in New York City, the son of artists, Maria Latasa and Egbert Cadmus. His father worked as a commercial artist and his mother illustrated children's books.
At age 15, Cadmus left school to attend the National Academy of Design for 6 years. He then enrolled at the Art Student League in 1928 taking life-drawing lessons while working as a commercial illustrator at a New York advertising agency.[4] He furthered his education while traveling through Europe from 1931 to 1933 with fellow artist, Jared French.
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| Luigi Lucioni (American, born Italy, 1900-1988). Paul Cadmus, 1928. Oil on canvas, 16 x 12 1/8 in. (40.6 x 30.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 2007.28. |
After traveling through France and Spain, Cadmus and French settled In a fishing village on the island Mallorca. In 1933, they headed back to the United States after running out of money, where Cadmus was one of the first artists to be employed by The New Deal art programs, painting murals at post offices.
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| The Fleet's In!, 1934 |
In 1934, he painted The Fleet's In! while working for the Public Works of Art Project of the WPA. This painting, featuring carousing sailors, women, and a homosexual couple, was the subject of a public outcry and was removed from exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery. The publicity helped to launch his career.
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| Paul Cadmus and Jared French by PaJaMa |
He worked in commercial illustration as well, but Jared French, another tempera artist who befriended him and became his lover for a time, convinced him to devote himself completely to fine art. In 1979, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1980.
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Paul Cadmus and Jon Anderson his partner.
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Jon Andersson, who became Cadmus's longtime companion of 35 years, was a subject of many of his works. The two met on a pier on Nantucket in 1964, when Andersson was twenty-seven and Cadmus was fifty-nine. "I never wanted to be with anyone else", Cadmus remarked. Thirty-six years later, at sixty-three and ninety-five, when Paul died, there were still together.
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| Paul Cadmus, The Haircut, 1986 |
In 1999, he died in his home in Weston, Connecticut due to advanced age, just five days shy of his 95th birthday. Cadmus's sister, Fidelma, was the wife of philanthropist and arts patron Lincoln Kirstein.
