Paul Cadmus
1904-1999
Study for What I Believe
1947-1948
5 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches (14 x 19.1 cm)
Graphite, with brown ink, with white opaque watercolor, on gray paper; verso rubbed with green pastel.
2005.39
Bequest of John M. Thayer.
© Paul Cadmus / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Notes
This study shows the figure of Death, represented as a gravedigger who lays aside his spade in disgust, from Cadmus's 1947-48 allegorical painting "What I Believe." The painting, which takes its title from an essay by EM Forster, was inspired in part by Cadmus's admiration for the writer, with whom he began corresponding in 1943.
Inscriptions/Markings
Signed in black crayon at upper right, "Cadmus".
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
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