I once saw an original Paul Cadmus drawing in a beach house on Cape Cod – the man knew muscles, and, for that matter, anything else of the male anatomy.  When digging a bit deeper to write about him I came across the essay below by an art critic named Steve Jenkins. I could not find out much about the latter – it turns out there is a famous children’ books illustrator by that name, as is a famous musician who plays the bass, and many more….. but the writer sure loved his alliterations. And I quote: “In the gorgeous, occasionally garish, always gratifying works of the great American artist Paul Cadmus, sailors and sunbathers, models and mannequins, nitwits and nudes all are suffused with a sensuality born equally of idyllic splendor and urban squalor, natural grace and graceful artifice.”  Or this: “Cadmus, to our enormous benefit, understands that beauty is bodies, brains, buttocks, bathtubs, bicycles, Bach, bravado and bad behaviour; beauty’s all things B”. Actually, his essay on Cadmus is sharp and instructive, flowery language notwithstanding, clearly worth a read.

http://www.queer-arts.org/archive/9809/cadmus/cadmus.html

The painter was – unintentionally as he claims in many interviews – early on depicting what we would now call gay life style. He also was not afraid of controversy and an honest assessment of American hypocrisy when it came to sexuality, our institutions, or the two combined. His most famous (and early controversial) painting was The Fleet is In, depicting highly sexualized scenes of sailors on leave. I chose his painting The Aviator
because it reminded me of the blond young man in my photograph. The latter might not be flying, but his hair is and his headband might just as well, given all the butterflies……