Between 1945 and 1949, Cadmus turned his dexterous hand and fertile imagination to rendering the Seven Deadly Sins, a subject with biblical antecedents that artists have explored since the Middle Ages, including Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Cadmus’s interpretation extends his predilection for social satire to surreal extremes of excess, vulgarity, and gore. Of the series, Cadmus explained, "I don’t appear as myself, but I am all of the Deadly Sins in a way, as you all are, too."
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust
Artist:Paul Cadmus (American, New York 1904–1999 Weston, Connecticut)
Date:1945
Medium:Egg tempera on Masonite
Dimensions:24 × 11 7/8 in. (61 × 30.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1993
Object Number:1993.87.1
Inscription: Signed (lower left): Cadmus; signed, dated, and inscribed (verso): SIN OF THE SECOND CIRCLE by Paul Cadmus / egg yolk tempera 1945; [Artist's description of media]
Lincoln Kirstein, New York (by 1972–93; his gift to MMA)
New York. Midtown Galleries. "Paintings by Paul Cadmus, 1938–1949," November 22–December 17, 1949, no catalogue.
New York. Gallery of Modern Art. "Contemporaries #1," February 23–March 21, 1965, no catalogue.
New York Cultural Center. "Collectors Anonymous: Four Private New York Collections," June 27–September 3, 1972, unnumbered cat. (p. 7).
New York. Midtown Galleries. "Paul Cadmus: Subway Symphony and Seven Deadly Sins," December 28, 1976–January 22, 1977, unnum. brochure (lent by a private collection).
Oxford, Oh. Miami University Art Museum. "Paul Cadmus: Yesterday and Today," September 12–October 25, 1981, unnumbered cat. (fig 2; lent by Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Kirstein).
Wichita, Kan. Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University. "Paul Cadmus: Yesterday and Today," November 11–December 20, 1981, unnumbered cat.
Charleston. Gibbes Art Gallery. "Paul Cadmus: Yesterday and Today," January 16–February 28, 1982, unnumbered cat.
Storrs. William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut. "Paul Cadmus: Yesterday and Today," March 20–May 2, 1982, unnumbered cat.
Yonkers, N.Y. Hudson River Museum. "Paul Cadmus: Yesterday and Today," May 20–July 11, 1982, unnumbered cat.
New York. Midtown Payson Galleries. "Paul Cadmus: Paintings, Drawings, Prints," March 12–April 18, 1992, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Cadmus: The Seven Deadly Sins and Selections from the Collection," April 7–July 4, 1995, extended to August 13, 1995, no catalogue.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Chuck Close/Paul Cadmus: In Dialogue," April 5–June 1, 1997, unnumbered cat.
Carlyle Burrows. "Cadmus' Trend Surrealist in His Retrospective Show." New York Herald Tribune (November 27, 1949), p. C8.
W. G. Rogers. "Friends Came in Handy for Painter's 7 Deadly Sins." Fort Worth Star-Telegram (November 30, 1949), p. 22.
"Sin in Frames." Time (December 5, 1949), pp. 63–64.
Howard Devree. "By Contemporaries: Recent Paintings by Paul Cadmus, Morris Kantor, Whitney Hoyt and Others." New York Times (November 27, 1949), p. X12.
R. T. "Paul Cadmus." Art News 48 (December 1949), p. 45.
Aline B. Louchheim. "A Partial Preview." New York Times (September 18, 1949), p. X12.
W. G. Rogers. "Artist Finds Himself Best Model in Painting of Seven Deadly Sins." Oakland Tribune (November 25, 1949), p. E39.
W. G. Rogers. "Sinners on Canvas." Sun (Baltimore, Md.) (November 27, 1949), p. 4A.
"Editorial: The Image of Man." Life 28 (January 23, 1950), p. 24.
Barbara Moore. Art USA Now. Ed. Lee Nordness. New York, 1963, between pp. 130–31.
John Canaday. "Art: 'Contemporaries #1'." New York Times (February 24, 1965), p. L35.
John Canaday. "A Quintuple Show at Cultural Center." New York Times (July 21, 1972), p. 9.
Philip I. Eliasoph. "Paul Cadmus: Life and Work." PhD diss., State University of New York, Binghamton, 1975, pp. 177–78, 183–186, 192, 194–195, 199–201, figs. 102–103 (overall and detail).
Philip Eliasoph. Paul Cadmus: Catalogue Raisonné, Paintings 1931–1977. [s.l.], 1977, pp. 20–21, no. 67.
Philip Eliasoph. Paul Cadmus: Yesterday and Today. Exh. cat., Miami University Art Museum. Oxford, Oh., 1981, pp. 9–10, fig. 2.
Kathie Beals. "Rediscover Cadmus at Hudson River Museum." Herald Statesman (May 28, 1982), p. 11.
Vivien Raynor. "Paul Cadmus Retrospective in Storrs." New York Times (April 4, 1982), p. CN22.
Doris Whitbeck. "UConn Shows Art's Bad Boys." Hartford Courant (March 21, 1982), p. E3.
Eleanor Charles. "Controversial Painting on View After 47 Years." New York Times (March 21, 1982), p. CN18.
"Portfolio: Paul Cadmus." Gay Times 76 (December 1984), p. 48, ill.
Lincoln Kirstein. Quarry: A Collection in Lieu of Memoirs. Pasadena, 1986, p. 53, ill. (color, installation photo).
Julie Kavanagh. "Portrait of a Culture Hero." Harper's Bazaar (June 1987), p. 132.
Lincoln Kirstein. Paul Cadmus. Rev. ed. (1st ed., 1984). New York, 1992, pp. 9, 41, 53–55, 60–61, 136, ill. p. 56 (color).
Michael Kimmelman. "Art in Review: Paul Cadmus's Satires." New York Times (April 10, 1992), p. C32.
Jonathan Weinberg. "Cruising With Paul Cadmus." Art in America 80 (November 1992), p. 108 n. 11.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1993–1994." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 52 (Fall 1994), p. 70.
Robert J. White. "If Deadly Sins Pall, Look at Livelier Ones." Minneapolis Star Tribune (June 18, 1995), p. 17A.
Philip Eliasoph. "Paul Cadmus at Ninety." American Arts Quarterly 12 (Spring 1995), pp. 42–44.
Grady T. Turner. "New York Fax." Art Issues no. 39 (September/October 1995), pp. 30–31.
Warren Allen Smith. "Paul Cadmus: Artist-Humanist." Free Inquiry 16 (Summer 1996), p. 13.
Edward J. Sozanski. "Close / Cadmus: A Tiny Show That Does a Great Deal." Philadelphia Inquirer (May 4, 1997), p. F11.
John Loughery. "The Flag: Waving, Burning, Provoking." Hudson Review 49 (Winter 1997), p. 655.
Michael Kimmelman. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. New York, 1998, pp. 151–52, ill.
Nicholas Jenkins. "Reflections: The Great Impresario." New Yorker (April 13, 1998), p. 51.
David Leddick. Intimate Companions: A Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Circle. New York, 2000, pp. 217–18.
Philip Eliasoph. "Appreciation: A Tribute to Paul Cadmus." American Art 14 (Fall 2000), p. 92.
Claudia Roth Pierpont. "Martin Duberman's 'The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein'." New Yorker (April 16, 2007), p. 148.
Martin Duberman. The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein. New York, 2007, pp. 403, 463, 482, 519, 684 n. 5.
Michael Kimmelman. "Kirstein's Lust For Art and Artists." New York Times (May 11, 2007), p. E30.
Shawn R. Tucker, ed. The Virtues and Vices in the Arts: A Sourcebook. Cambridge, England, 2015, pp. 265–67, 277.
Angela Miller. "Sinners All: The Queer World of Paul Cadmus’s 'Seven Deadly Sins'." American Art 36 (Spring 2022), pp. 111–18, 120, 122, 125–36, fig. 4 (color).
Paul Cadmus (American, New York 1904–1999 Weston, Connecticut)
1947
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