+ Expand

Description: Le Ruban Denoue: Hommage a Reynaldo Hahn signed Cadmus, l.r. - - inscribed with title, l.l. - - signed Paul Cadmus and inscribed with title on the reverse - - egg tempera on gessoed masonite 21 x 36 in. (53.3 x 91.4 cm.) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist Lincoln Kirstein, New York The School of American Ballet, New York (Sale: Christie's, New York, December 1, 1989, no. 139) EXHIBITED New York, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Paul Cadmus: Yesterday and Today, April-June, 1975. This exhibition traveled to Oxford, Ohio, Miami University Art Museum, Sept.-Oct. 1981; Wichita, Wichita State Univeristy, Nov.-Dec. 1981; Charleston, Gibbs Art Gallery, Jan.-Feb. 1982; Storrs, William Benton Museum of Art, March-May 1982; and Yonkers, The Hudson River Museum, May-July 1982 LITERATURE L. Kirstein, Paul Cadmus, New York, 1984, pp. 93-95, illus. A piano prodigy, Hahn was a student of Jules Massenet and Camille Saint-Saens. In addition to performing, he sang, composed operas, symphonies, songs, and piano pieces, and worked as a conductor and critic. His lifelong friendship with Marcel Proust proved inspirational to both artists. The present work depicts the musician in a fantastical setting saturated with symbolism which parallels similar qualities in Hahn's work. A music afficionado himself, Cadmus presents Hahn as a fin-de-siele dandy who is kissed by Eros to inspire his creative genius. The figure pulling at Hahn's sleeve has been identified by Lincoln Kirstein as one of the family of Beaux-Arts figures decorating the Paris Opera. He may also be identified as Pan whose associations with the world of music is well documented. The painting, executed in 1963, directly refers to Hahn's suite of waltzes Le Ruban Denoue (The Ribbon Unloosed).