The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
Shore Leave
1935
(American, 1904–1999)
Platemark: 26.4 x 29.2 cm (10 3/8 x 11 1/2 in.); Sheet: 32.4 x 39.9 cm (12 3/4 x 15 11/16 in.)
© Estate of Paul Cadmus/ VAGA, NY
Catalogue raisonné: Davenport 40
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
A painting related to this print made by Cadmus in 1934 was removed from an exhibition after causing an uproar among U.S. military officials who deemed it indecent.Description
This representation of sailors on shore leave with their dates in a city park is anything but innocent. Like urban crowd scenes made by his teacher, Reginald Marsh, Paul Cadmus’s pyramidal composition and voluptuous body types refer to late Renaissance paintings. But the protagonists’ exaggerated bosoms and buttocks, outrageously tight clothes, and uncontained movements also indicate their unbound sexuality. The image includes an oblique reference to homosexuality, signaled by the subtle exchange in the background between a soldier and a well-dressed civilian man. Cadmus’s mixture of satire and idealization enabled him to depict homoeroticism at a time when it was otherwise invisible within American art.- Ashcan School Prints and the American City, 1900-1940. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 18-December 26, 2021).Images of War. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992).A Golden Age of American Printmaking. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 12-April 11, 1982).Recent Accessions of Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 6-31, 1937).
- {{cite web|title=Shore Leave|url=false|author=Paul Cadmus|year=1935|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1936.24