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Lot Essay
Born in Manhattan in 1904, Paul Cadmus received his first instruction in the fine arts from his parents who were both professional artists. His father, Egbert, had studied with Robert Henri from whom he learned his trade as a watercolorist and lithographer, while his mother, Maria, illustrated children's books. At fifteen, the young Cadmus enrolled for classes at the National Academy of Design, where he continued his studies and refined his technique. In 1928, Cadmus became a commercial illustrator for the New York advertising firm of Blackman Company. By 1931, he had saved enough money to travel to Europe, where, with the painter Jared French, he made a bicycle tour of France and Spain. At the end of their trip, Cadmus settled for two years on the island of Mallorca. While there, he produced the first of his mature works.
Just a few years later, Cadmus painted The Fleet's In! (Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.), and thereby initiated his reputation as an enfant terrible. The Public Works of Art Project commissioned the work for its 1934 exhibition, but the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Henry Latrobe Roosevelt, demanded its removal, claiming it was a perverse defamation of his armed service. Most of Cadmus' other early American masterpieces, like Herrin Massacre and Hinky Dinky Parley Voo, met with similar opposition and aquired equal celebrity.
With Seeing the New Year In, Cadmus brings his gentle satire to a new subject. As noted by Lincoln Kirstein, Cadmus drew his subject of the work "from his personal participation in similar hapless festivities. Not one character depicted welcomes the birth of a new year with more than a desperate or complacent salute." (Paul Cadmus, New York, 1984, p. 40) Philip Elisasoph has written: "This painting is based on characters that Cadmus saw and knew at parties that he attended, and has as a literary source, The Wild Party (1929) by Joseph Moncure March. The art critic, Henry McBride, reviewed the 1939 exhibition of the American Society of Painters, and found the painting had 'too great an interest in wickedness for its own sake.'" (Paul Cadmus: Yesterday & Today, Oxford, Ohio, 1981, p. 67)
Seeing the New Year In retains its original frame, crafted by the artist.
Just a few years later, Cadmus painted The Fleet's In! (Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.), and thereby initiated his reputation as an enfant terrible. The Public Works of Art Project commissioned the work for its 1934 exhibition, but the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Henry Latrobe Roosevelt, demanded its removal, claiming it was a perverse defamation of his armed service. Most of Cadmus' other early American masterpieces, like Herrin Massacre and Hinky Dinky Parley Voo, met with similar opposition and aquired equal celebrity.
With Seeing the New Year In, Cadmus brings his gentle satire to a new subject. As noted by Lincoln Kirstein, Cadmus drew his subject of the work "from his personal participation in similar hapless festivities. Not one character depicted welcomes the birth of a new year with more than a desperate or complacent salute." (Paul Cadmus, New York, 1984, p. 40) Philip Elisasoph has written: "This painting is based on characters that Cadmus saw and knew at parties that he attended, and has as a literary source, The Wild Party (1929) by Joseph Moncure March. The art critic, Henry McBride, reviewed the 1939 exhibition of the American Society of Painters, and found the painting had 'too great an interest in wickedness for its own sake.'" (Paul Cadmus: Yesterday & Today, Oxford, Ohio, 1981, p. 67)
Seeing the New Year In retains its original frame, crafted by the artist.