Louis Michel Eilshemius
by: Paul J. Karlstrom

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 263 pages. Louis Michel Eilshemius was a born poet-visionary. His paintings reveal a gift for lyrical expression, an ability to impart an unearthly, dreamlike quality to canvas, and an extraordinary originality. The abundant illustrations in this first comprehensive volume on the artist attest to the importance of his contribution to American art at the turn of the century. In his sensitive text, Paul J. Karlstrom illuminates the contradictions that provide the key to understanding Eilshemius's life and art. Thoroughly trained in the academic manner, Eilshemius later became known primarily as the painter of bizarre, 'primitive' nudes. His early paintings, landscapes influenced by the Barbizon school and Camille Corot, differ dramatically from his late works, which are naive and often disturbing fantasies. At his best, Eilshemius was a magician of the canvas, yet his unstable character and unrealistic ambitions prevented him from fully realizing his talent.