The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 3, 2023

Dancing Sailors

1917

Charles Demuth

(American, 1883–1935)

America, 20th century

Watercolor over graphite

Support: Cream(2) wove paper, laid down on gray board

Sheet: 20.4 x 25.7 cm (8 1/16 x 10 1/8 in.); Secondary Support: 21.4 x 26.3 cm (8 7/16 x 10 3/8 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1980.9

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

This drawing was exhibited only once during the artist's lifetime, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York—notable since he otherwise did not show them publicly.

Description

This drawing was inspired by Charles Demuth's participation in the nightlife of New York's Greenwich Village during the early 20th century. Around this time, the artist made numerous watercolors of nightclubs, performers, and bathhouses. Demuth created two almost identical compositions (the other is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York), which both show groups of three couples, with two sailors dancing together while others dance with women. Demuth kept these and other homoerotic watercolors private throughout his career, and almost never showed them publicly. The sheet's planes of textured watercolor blur figure and background, presenting a subtle but pointedly erotic scene.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed, center left, in graphite: C. Demuth-1917-; verso of secondary support, upper right, in graphite: 121444.3

Provenance
1917-by 1929
Charles Demuth, sold to Albert Rothbart, Ridgefield, CT
by 1929-probably 1965
Albert Rothbart [1874-1965], Ridgefield, CT
1970
(Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, October 14, 1970, no. 29)
1980
(Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1980-
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Citations
Paintings by Nineteen Living Artists. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1929 Mentioned: p. 17, no. 8
Barr, Jr., Alfred H., ed. Modern Works of Art. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1934. Mentioned: p. 28; Reproduced: no. 64
Farnham, Emily. "Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology and Works." Ph.D. diss. Ohio State University, 1959. Mentioned: p. 507, no. 233
"La Chronique des Arts." Gazette des Beaux Arts 97, no. 1346 (March 1981). Mentioned and reproduced: no. 236
"Year in Review for 1980." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981). Mentioned: p. 213; Reproduced: p. 199
Eiseman, Alvord L. Charles Demuth. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1982. Mentioned: p. 47; Reproduced: p. 46
Sokolowski, Thomas W. The Sailor 1930-45: The Image of an American Demigod. Exh. Cat. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum, 1983. Mentioned: p. 109; Reproduced: p. 41
Haskell, Barbara. Charles Demuth. Exh. Cat. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 87, no. 26
Shone, Richard. "New York 20th-century exhibitions." Burlington Magazine 130, no. 1018 (January 1988): 57-60. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 58
Weinberg, Jonathan. Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the First American Avant-Garde. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. pp. 99-100; Reproduced: p. 98
Foster, Carter E., "Drawing Power", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 38 no. 04, April 1998 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4-5 archive.org
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 240-241, 297; Reproduced: p. 241
Weinberg, Jonathan. Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004. Reproduced: p. 39, 41
Katz, Jonathan D. and David C. Ward. Hide and Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Exh. Cat. Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, 2010. Mentioned: p. 86; Reproduced: p. 87, plate 10
Morris, Anthony J. "The Censored Paintings of Paul Cadmus, 1934-1940: The Body as the Boundary Between the Decent and Obscene." PhD diss., Case Western Reserve University, 2010. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 219
Lord, Catherine and Richard Meyer. Art & Queer Culture. London: Phaidon, 2013. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 70
Cozzolino, Robert, et. al.,eds.World War I and American Art. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in association with Princeton University Press, 2016. p. 176 Reproduced: p. 176, pl. 41
Lord, Catherine, and Richard Meyer. Art & Queer Culture.
London : Phaidon, 2019. Reproduced and mentioned: p. 66
Exhibition history

Modern Works of Art. Museum of Modern Art, New York (November 1934).

Paintings by Nineteen Living Americans. Museum of Modern Art, New York (December 13, 1929 - January 12, 1930).

Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).

The Sailor 1930-45: The Image of an American Demigod. The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA (January 20-March 13, 1983).

Charles Demuth. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (organizer) (October 15-January 17, 1987); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (February 25-April 24, 1988); Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (May 8-July 10, 1988); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (August 7-October 2, 1988).

Directions in Drawing: 1750-1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 2-August 4, 1991).

American Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 19-July 12, 1998).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001).

Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Smithsonian Institution National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC (organizer) (September 30, 2010-February 13, 2011); The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (November 18, 2011-February 18, 2012).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.9