Finistere by Paul Cadmus

Finistère (1952)

Paul Cadmus (American, 1904-1999)

Egg tempera on pressed wood panel

10 x 13.5 in.

Whitney Museum of American Art

Finistère, or literally the end of the earth, is the westernmost part of  France. The longstanding location of a naval base, it appears repeatedly in literature and art in the first part of the twentieth century. Jean Genet's novel, Querelle de Brest, portions of Fritz Peters' novel Finistère and Paul Cadmus' painting Finistère all center on this geographic area. 

The Whitney Museum of American Art included this painting in an exhibit titled American Legends: From Calder to O'Keefe (December 22, 2012-June 29, 2014). A transcript of the audio guide stop for this painting follows.

NARRATOR: Finistère—the French region that lends this Paul Cadmus painting its name—is in the far west of Brittany, where the English Channel and the Atlantic meet.

The painting’s two main figures are young men on bicycles. Each wears nothing but a shirt and revealing swim briefs. They have the bodies of Classical or Renaissance nudes: idealized and strong. Cadmus was deeply influenced by Italian Renaissance painting. Here, he’s even executed the work in egg tempera, a painstaking medium that most artists had given up by the later sixteenth century. 

The picture’s mood is a little odd. The sea wall is labyrinthine, and blocks most of the ocean view. Hardly anyone is looking at each other, and it’s not entirely clear what’s going on. Most of the figures seem intent on their private thoughts or business. There’s a strange huddle of people to the right, including a woman in traditional Breton costume. She adds to the painting’s slightly surreal quality—but perhaps also hints at the presence of conservative society.

The two central men aren’t making eye contact either, but they do seem to be communicating. In this way, the painting is slyly humorous about how homoerotic desire can hide in plain sight—even at a time when that desire was essentially forbidden.