Word: eilshemius
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Died. Louis Michel Eilshemius, 77, self-styled Grand Transcendent Eagle of Art; of pneumonia; in Manhattan. A painter for some 50 years, he turned out more than 5,000 canvases, failed to attract either fame or buyers till he was a broken old man. He was then embraced as a cult, made the Metropolitan Museum, sold paintings at four-figure prices. A crippled, wandering-minded recluse, he observed: "It's too late to enjoy my fame." He died in a psychopathic ward...
Louis Michel Eilshemius, scrag-bearded, self-styled Mahatma, Supreme Parnassian and Grand Transcendent Eagle of Art, spent half a century painting in obscurity, writing letters of self-praise to editors, growing poorer, bitterer, more desperate. In 1932, when he was 68, fame and recognition came to the old man. Two Manhattan galleries held exhibitions of his paintings, the Metropolitan Museum bought one. Last week, from the musty, gaslighted Victorian brownstone house his father left him (on which he was unable to pay the mounting taxes), Eilshemius was taken to Bellevue Hospital, placed in the psychopathic ward...