Paul Cadmus
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Luigi Lucioni and Paul Cadmus probably met as students, and they doubtless shared acquaintances within New York’s circles of gay artists and writers. Lucioni’s likeness of Cadmus celebrated the shared passion of two young moderns for the ideal forms of Italian Renaissance art, particularly the paintings of Piero della Francesca. Within a modern close-up format, he captured a gaze that is at once tentative and mesmerizing.
Caption
Luigi Lucioni (American, born Italy, 1900–1988). Paul Cadmus, 1928. Oil on canvas, 16 x 12 1/8 in. (40.6 x 30.8 cm) Frame: 20 3/8 x 16 1/2 x 2 in. (51.8 x 41.9 x 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 2007.28. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Paul Cadmus
Date
1928
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
16 x 12 1/8 in. (40.6 x 30.8 cm) Frame: 20 3/8 x 16 1/2 x 2 in. (51.8 x 41.9 x 5.1 cm)
Signatures
Signed upper right: "L. Lucioni 28"
Credit Line
Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Accession Number
2007.28
Frequent Art Questions
Do we know if Luigi Lucioni ever worked with Tamara de Lempicka?
That's a really interesting question, and I can see why you would wonder that. There's something similar about the way they both depict the human face, and they were working at the same time. However, I don't believe their paths ever directly overlapped.I. Lorser Feitelson's "Diana at the Bath," also in the collection here, also reminds me of de Lempicka. Its female figures are very elongated and stylized in the same way.Lucioni definitely likes to work in the same very polished style that she does! -- all the details are so crisp and the surfaces are so smooth.Who is this handsome man?
Luigi Lucioni painted his friend and fellow artist Paul Cadmus in 1928. Lucioni captured the identity of a young, stylish man of the 1920s while also employing devices inspired by Renaissance portraiture. What drew you to this portrait of Paul Cadmus?My friends and I were intrigued by his face.Many people are! Cadmus would have been about 24 at the time of this portrait and Lucioni, only a few years older himself, effectively captured the visage of a dapper gentleman and art student. Cadmus would become known for his paintings of the male nude.
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