Mayhem bedevils this summer scene in Aspects of Suburban Life: Public Dock.Swimmers, boating onlookers, and a fisherman vie for space on a crowded, lively wharf painted by Paul Cadmus.
Ahoy There, Matey!
Mayhem bedevils this summer scene in Aspects of Suburban Life: Public Dock.Swimmers, boating onlookers, and a fisherman vie for space on a crowded, lively wharf painted by Paul Cadmus.
This is one of three paintings that Cadmus conceived as preliminary versions of murals commissioned for the Port Washington, New York, post office. He had to abandon the project, however, when the postmaster of the affluent Long Island suburb objected to his satirical depiction of residents and their cranky children.
See this artwork and about sixty others in our traveling exhibition, Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The show is currently on view at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington, through September 9, 2001.
Source: Virginia Mecklenburg. Scenes from American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured: Paul Cadmus, 1904–1999, Aspects of Suburban Life: Public Dock, 1936, oil and tempera, 31 3/8 x 52 5/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of State.