The American artist Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) was a Thirty year old unknown, outside of his own New York bohemian circles, painter in 1934, but then he became famous, or should we say, infamous almost overnight when a major artistic scandal erupted over his risqué, and much publicized painting, The Fleet’s In!
The painting depicts US sailors on rowdy and lecherous shore leave and it aroused the anger and ire of US Navy top brass, not only for its depiction of the Navy but also its obvious sexual connotations that fed into the myth of naval life.