1900, Louis Michel Eilshemius, New Mexico -- American University Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
Louis Michel Eilshemius (1864-1941) was the sixth of eight children, was born to a wealthy New Jersey family. As an eleven-year-old, he and a brother were sent to school in Europe, first in Geneva, Switzerland, and later in Dresden, Germany. When he returned to New York in 1881, he was eager to pursue the interest in art he had gained while abroad, but he faced formidable family opposition. Not until 1884 was he able to enroll in classes at the Art Students League (1884-1886). He next spent nearly a year in Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian. In the summer of 1887 he took private lessons in Antwerp, Belgium, with landscape painter Joseph van Luppen (1834-1891) before returning to New York.
He initially found few clients for his idiosyncratic work. For many years, funds from his father's estate enabled Eilshemius to support himself and travel extensively. Popular interest in his art dates to 1917. Two of his paintings appeared that year in an exhibition in New York, organized by the Society of Independent Artists, and caught the attention and praise of avant- garde guru Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). Duchamp's continued enthusiasm as well as subsequent exhibitions organized by the Société Anonyme and dealers led to acquisitions by museums and prominent collectors in the decades before Eilshemius' death.
With the exception of the painting done in New Mexico, Eilshemius's landscapes are merely backdrops for his imaginative fantasies. Eilshemius's own words offer a guide to his approach to painting. "The important mission of the artist," he wrote, "is to portray scenes which the layman neglects to see in nature; to show beauties which the public never think of beholding; and to imbue his paintings with a thought that is not commonplace. In short, he must uplift the spectator's mind to higher planes."
1900, Louis Michel Eilshemius, New Mexico -- American University Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
Louis Michel Eilshemius (1864-1941) was the sixth of eight children, was born to a wealthy New Jersey family. As an eleven-year-old, he and a brother were sent to school in Europe, first in Geneva, Switzerland, and later in Dresden, Germany. When he returned to New York in 1881, he was eager to pursue the interest in art he had gained while abroad, but he faced formidable family opposition. Not until 1884 was he able to enroll in classes at the Art Students League (1884-1886). He next spent nearly a year in Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian. In the summer of 1887 he took private lessons in Antwerp, Belgium, with landscape painter Joseph van Luppen (1834-1891) before returning to New York.
He initially found few clients for his idiosyncratic work. For many years, funds from his father's estate enabled Eilshemius to support himself and travel extensively. Popular interest in his art dates to 1917. Two of his paintings appeared that year in an exhibition in New York, organized by the Society of Independent Artists, and caught the attention and praise of avant- garde guru Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). Duchamp's continued enthusiasm as well as subsequent exhibitions organized by the Société Anonyme and dealers led to acquisitions by museums and prominent collectors in the decades before Eilshemius' death.
With the exception of the painting done in New Mexico, Eilshemius's landscapes are merely backdrops for his imaginative fantasies. Eilshemius's own words offer a guide to his approach to painting. "The important mission of the artist," he wrote, "is to portray scenes which the layman neglects to see in nature; to show beauties which the public never think of beholding; and to imbue his paintings with a thought that is not commonplace. In short, he must uplift the spectator's mind to higher planes."