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Source Description
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 background, presenting a subtle but pointedly erotic scene.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
150174
label
Dancing Sailors
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
150174
contentType
drawing
title
Dancing Sailors
description
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 background, presenting a subtle but pointedly erotic scene.
date
1917
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79932407
creators
4010
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 20.4 x 25.7 cm (8 1/16 x 10 1/8 in.); Secondary Support: 21.4 x 26.3 cm (8 7/16 x 10 3/8 in.)
cul
America
accession
1980.9
Source extras
tec
watercolor over graphite
tombstone
Dancing Sailors, 1917. Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935). Watercolor over graphite; sheet: 20.4 x 25.7 cm (8 1/16 x 10 1/8 in.); secondary support: 21.4 x 26.3 cm (8 7/16 x 10 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 1980.9
supportMaterials
description
cream(2) wove paper, laid down on gray board
collection
DR - American 20th Century
inscriptions
inscription
signed, center left, in graphite: C. Demuth-1917-; verso of secondary support, upper right, in graphite: 121444.3
didYouKnow
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.
citations
citation
<em>Paintings by Nineteen Living Artists</em>. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1929
page_number
Mentioned: p. 17, no. 8
citation
Barr, Jr., Alfred H., ed. <em>Modern Works of Art</em>. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1934.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 28; Reproduced: no. 64
citation
Farnham, Emily. "Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology and Works." Ph.D. diss. Ohio State University, 1959.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 507, no. 233
citation
"La Chronique des Arts." <em>Gazette des Beaux Arts</em> 97, no. 1346 (March 1981).
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: no. 236
citation
"Year in Review for 1980." <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 68, no. 6 (June 1981).
page_number
Mentioned: p. 213; Reproduced: p. 199
citation
Eiseman, Alvord L. <em>Charles Demuth</em>. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1982.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 47; Reproduced: p. 46
citation
Sokolowski, Thomas W. <em>The Sailor 1930-45: The Image of an American Demigod</em>. Exh. Cat. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum, 1983.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 109; Reproduced: p. 41
citation
Haskell, Barbara. <em>Charles Demuth</em>. Exh. Cat. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1987.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 87, no. 26
citation
Shone, Richard. "New York 20th-century exhibitions." <em>Burlington Magazine</em> 130, no. 1018 (January 1988): 57-60.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 58
citation
Weinberg, Jonathan. <em>Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the First American Avant-Garde</em>. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
page_number
pp. 99-100; Reproduced: p. 98
citation
Foster, Carter E., "Drawing Power", Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em>. Vol. 38 no. 04, April 1998
page_number
Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4-5
citation
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 240-241, 297; Reproduced: p. 241
citation
Weinberg, Jonathan. <em>Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art. </em>New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 39, 41
citation
Katz, Jonathan D. and David C. Ward. <em>Hide and Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture</em>. Exh. Cat. Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, 2010.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 86; Reproduced: p. 87, plate 10
citation
Morris, Anthony J. "The Censored Paintings of Paul Cadmus, 1934-1940: The Body as the Boundary Between the Decent and Obscene." PhD diss., Case Western Reserve University, 2010.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 219
citation
Lord, Catherine and Richard Meyer. <em>Art & Queer Culture</em>. London: Phaidon, 2013.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 70
citation
Cozzolino, Robert, et. al.,eds.<em>World War I and American Art. </em>Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in association with Princeton University Press, 2016. p. 176
page_number
Reproduced: p. 176, pl. 41
citation
Lord, Catherine, and Richard Meyer. <em>Art & Queer Culture</em>. <br>London : Phaidon, 2019.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: p. 66
creditline
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:45:30.132000
sourceId
150174
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - American 20th Century
med
watercolor over graphite
creatorTags
LGBTQ+ (after 1900)
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
e2fe673c5fed9e29