Louis Michel Eilshemius (born on February 4, 1864 in Newark and died on December 29, 1941) was an American painter, primarily of landscapes and nudes Although he was academically trained, much of his work has the unselfconscious character of naive art In retrospect, his many female nudes, among others, are related in some respects to naive art
Coming from an affluent family near Newark, New Jersey, Louis Eilshemius received a European education before joining Cornell University He then studied at the Art Students League of New York and completed his training with a trip to Paris, where he studied at Bouguereau at the Julian Academy After a detour by Africa and the West Indies, he returned to live in New York, where he spent most of his life
From 1910, he conjures fantastic and even unusual motifs: his feminine nudes, with voluptuous forms, are sometimes split and seem to dance in space Instead of the canvas, he prefers to paint on thick card stock The audience, intrigued, is also somewhat shocked by his nudes Eilshemius also adopts a whimsical attitude when it comes to presenting himself or talking about his work: on a business card, he makes print his incredible multiple activities of then: “Educator, Ex-actor, Amateur All-around Doctor , Mesmerist-Prophet and Mystic, Reader of Hands and Faces, Linguist of 5 languages
His early landscapes, which show the influence of the Barbizon School and of Corot, George Inness and Albert Pinkham Ryder gained him little recognition from critics or the public Around 1910, the element of fantasy in his work became more pronounced and his technique became coarser; henceforth, he often painted on cardboard instead of canvas As his works became more idiosyncratic, so did his behavior, and he developed an unsettling habit of visiting galleries and loudly condemning the works on display
In 1917, this eccentric receives the support of Marcel Duchamp, who organized an exhibition of his works in Paris that year, which passed completely unnoticed as a result of the war In 1920, Duchamp joined Eilshemius at the Société Anonyme, Inc, which presented his work in New York, and then became one of the artists promoted for more than twenty years But the very negative reactions of criticism accumulated until then (with the exception of Joseph Stella and Henri Matisse who admired him) prompted Eilshemius to stop painting in 1921 – a single painting would have been executed after that date in 1937
His later, visionary works depicting moonlit landscapes populated with voluptuous nymphs caused his contemporaries particular consternation, due to their crudely rendered and often extravagantly smiling nudes These are shown frolicking in forests or waterfalls, either alone or in groups, sometimes defying gravity by floating through the air His paintings of New York rooftops are as lyrical as his pastoral scenes, and like them are often bounded by sinuous “frames” he painted onto his pictures
In June 1932, the Galerie Durand-Ruel organized a great retrospective of his work in Paris: his art was then attached to American neo-primitivism The French State acquires Causerie in a park (The Gossip), a painting currently in the patrimonial collections of the Musée d’Orsay and on deposit at the National Museum of Franco-American Cooperation
Eilshemius also wrote verse and prose, composed music, painted, philosophized and became notorious for his numerous, often vitriolic, letters-to-the-editor of various New York City publications His lack of public acclaim led him to desperate measures: suspecting that the length of his name was responsible for his neglect, in about 1890 he began signing his paintings “Elshemus” (he reverted to the original spelling in 1913) On letterheads and in hyperbolic, self-published flyers he would proclaim his accomplishments: “Educator, Ex-actor, Amateur All-around Doctor, Mesmerist-Prophet and Mystic, Reader of Hands and Faces, Linguist of 5 languages”, as well as world-class athlete and marksman, “Spirit-Painter Supreme”, and musician whose improvisations rivaled the compositions of Chopin All of this only reinforced the impression, already suggested by the peculiar imagery in many of his paintings, that he was either mad or a charlatan
He was not without supporters, however Eilshemius was championed by Marcel Duchamp, who “discovered” Eilshemius in 1917 and invited him to exhibit with him in Paris that year Joseph Stella was an admirer and drew a particularly fine silverpoint portrait of him His work was generally well received by French viewers and critics; his admirers included Matisse Duchamp subsequently helped to arrange Eilshemius’s first solo exhibition in 1920, at the Société Anonyme in New York City The hostile critical reception to this exhibition, however, finally drove him to give up painting entirely in 1921, although there is a single known painting dated 1937 The remainder of his life was dedicated to self-promotion, and in 1931 he took to referring to himself as “Mahatma” Victor Ganz started collecting art in his teenage years with the purchases of watercolors by Louis Eilshemius and Jules Pascin and an oil painting by Raphael Soyer
Injured in an automobile accident in 1932, he became increasingly reclusive His health in decline and his family fortune spent, he died in 1941
Since his death, Eilshemius’s work has found a wider audience One of the artist’s few consistent patrons, Roy Neuberger, donated a large body of Eilshemius’ work to the Neuberger Museum of Art located at SUNY Purchase College in New York State
The Neuberger Museum of Art has a considerable number of its paintings; The Swiss artist and curator Stefan Banz devoted two important studies5 to him in 2015 and 2016
According to Stefan Banz, there is no evidence that Eilshemius was a grandson of Swiss painter Louis Léopold Robert as some sources report
He was not without supporters, however Eilshemius was championed by Marcel Duchamp, who “discovered” Eilshemius in 1917 and invited him to exhibit with him in Paris that year Joseph Stella was an admirer and drew a particularly fine silverpoint portrait of him His work was generally well received by French viewers and critics; his admirers included Matisse Duchamp subsequently helped to arrange Eilshemius’s first solo exhibition in 1920, at the Société Anonyme in New York City The hostile critical reception to this exhibition, however, finally drove him to give up painting entirely in 1921, although there is a single known painting dated 1937 The remainder of his life was dedicated to self-promotion, and in 1931 he took to referring to himself as “Mahatma” Victor Ganz started collecting art in his teenage years with the purchases of watercolors by Louis Eilshemius and Jules Pascin and an oil painting by Raphael Soyer
Injured in an automobile accident in 1932, he became increasingly reclusive His health in decline and his family fortune spent, he died in 1941
Since his death, Eilshemius’s work has found a wider audience One of the artist’s few consistent patrons, Roy Neuberger, donated a large body of Eilshemius’ work to the Neuberger Museum of Art located at SUNY Purchase College in New York State
The Neuberger Museum of Art has a considerable number of its paintings; The Swiss artist and curator Stefan Banz devoted two important studies5 to him in 2015 and 2016
According to Stefan Banz, there is no evidence that Eilshemius was a grandson of Swiss painter Louis Léopold Robert as some sources report