America / 1917
Dancing Sailors
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Dancing Sailors as drawing (America · 1917).
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.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this drawing as watercolor over graphite and credits Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935).
The museum's collection notes: 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 backgr
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtDancing SailorsOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.