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Lot Essay
A lifelong Cape Cod resident, artist Ralph Cahoon created a surreal world filled with mermaids and sailors, historical figures and hot air balloons, all in bright, whimsical, illustrative settings. Inspired by the costal scenes of his native New England, historical events, Pennsylvania German art, and popular culture, among other things, the themes of Cahoon’s art reveal an intellectual, talented creator with a unique style and sense of humor.
Boston Tea Party references the now-infamous event of the American Revolution, but with a delightfully irreverent Cahoon spin. This version interprets Boston’s Sons of Liberty, dressed as Native Americans throwing tea from the Beaver. In the foreground of the painting a mermaid and fully uniformed British General Thomas Gage sit in fancy painted chairs for a dainty late-night tea from porcelain cups. Satirically genteel, they are oblivious to (or unbothered by) the actions on the ship behind. Injecting humor into a tumultuous historical moment, Cahoon emerges as a wonderful satirist unconfined by the baggage and contexts of his depicted events.
Born in Chatham, Massachusetts, Ralph Cahoon spent two years at the School of Practical Art in Boston before returning to Cape Cod. He and his wife Martha settled first in Osterville, and later in an historic house in Cotuit. The couple, both artists, worked in a similar style and adorned this home with murals and their paintings; it is now the site of the Cahoon Museum of American Art.
Boston Tea Party references the now-infamous event of the American Revolution, but with a delightfully irreverent Cahoon spin. This version interprets Boston’s Sons of Liberty, dressed as Native Americans throwing tea from the Beaver. In the foreground of the painting a mermaid and fully uniformed British General Thomas Gage sit in fancy painted chairs for a dainty late-night tea from porcelain cups. Satirically genteel, they are oblivious to (or unbothered by) the actions on the ship behind. Injecting humor into a tumultuous historical moment, Cahoon emerges as a wonderful satirist unconfined by the baggage and contexts of his depicted events.
Born in Chatham, Massachusetts, Ralph Cahoon spent two years at the School of Practical Art in Boston before returning to Cape Cod. He and his wife Martha settled first in Osterville, and later in an historic house in Cotuit. The couple, both artists, worked in a similar style and adorned this home with murals and their paintings; it is now the site of the Cahoon Museum of American Art.