SOLD - A Frantic Prayer (1912)

Oil on artistboard, 23 x 27 inches, signed lower right in a wonderful period frame. Provenance: Kleeman Gallery (label verso). MOMA,1932, loaned by Kleeman Gallery. Sterling Strauser collection. „ The work of Louis Michel Eilshemius remains as enigmatic today as it was to audiences during his lifetime. Eilshemius has been “discovered” only to be forgotten more than once both during his lifetime and since his death. This unfortunate circumstance led the artist to isolation, eccentricity, and a compulsion to paint which resulted in a large ouevre varying greatly in quality. This last factor has been the biggest detriment to the reputation of an artist who, judged by his best work, ranks as a unique visionary. Eilshemius’ work, much of which was drawn from the subconscious, can be said today to be a forerunner of Surrealism. The seemingly naive technique of the artist’s paintings belie his high level of academic and artistic training both in the United States and abroad. Marcel Duchamp was an early champion of Eilshemius, helping the artist show his work in the early 1920’s. Joseph Hirshhorn, in his bid to bring Eilshemius to his deserved place in the history of American art, amassed an extraordinary collection of works which appear in the substantial monograph on the artist published by the Hirshhorn Museum. We are fortunate to have acquired a group of important Eilshemius works from the Sterling Strauser collection.