Aspects of Suburban Life: Golf

Paul Cadmus, Aspects of Suburban Life: Golf, 1936, oil and tempera on fiberboard, 31 ³⁄₄ x 50 in. (80.6 x 127.0 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of State, 1978.76.1

Artwork Details

Title: Aspects of Suburban Life: Golf
Artist: Paul Cadmus
Date: 1936
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
Luce Foundation Center
/
4th Floor
/
35A
Dimensions: 31 ³⁄₄ x 50 in. (80.6 x 127.0 cm.)
Credit Line: Transfer from the U.S. Department of State
Mediums: oil
tempera
Mediums Description: oil and tempera on fiberboard
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: New Deal — Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project — New York City
Recreation — sport and play — golf
Recreation — leisure — smoking
Landscape — building
Figure group — male
Object Number: 1978.76.1
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1978.76.1

Artwork Description

Golf is from Paul Cadmus’s Aspects of Suburban Life series, which was commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project for a post office mural that was never completed. The paunchy golfers in this painting are more concerned with jawboning and smoking cigars than they are with perfecting their swings, and two of them appear preoccupied with the young, muscular caddy who waits to do their bidding. The caddy wears a poorer man’s clothes, and Cadmus included holes in the young man’s shoes to emphasize the distance between his social class and theirs.