Louis Eilshemius (1864-1961)

Louis Michel Eilshemius, October 4, 1913. 
Photograph, 22.8 x 15.2 cm.  Photographs 
of Artists, Collection I.  Archives of 
American Art, Smithsonian Institution.  		  

An artist, poet, composer, self-proclaimed Mahatma and "Mightiest Mind and Wonder of the Worlds.  Supreme Parnassian and Grand Transcendant Eagle of Art," Louis Eilshemius [sometimes spelled Elshemius] is one of the most unconventional persons represented in the collections of the Archives of American Art.  His calling card describes him as an: "Educator, Ex-Actor, Amateur All Round Doctor, Mesmerist-Prophet and Mystic, Reader of Hands and Faces. . .The most rapid master creator in the 3 Arts. . .His middle name is "Variety."  All the supreme Genius Minds down the ages find Domain in Eilshemius."

 

  


Calling card for Louis M. Eilshemius.  15.2 x 10.2 cm. 
Hyman Kaitz papers, Archives of American Art, 
Smithsonian Institution.  


Writing in his pamphlet Some New Discoveries! in SCIENCE and ART, Eilshemius claims that: "My compositions are utterly original in their new tempi, their incomparable exquisite and dramatic conceptions to move the soul-ecstasy any one sensitive to music's finder sounds and harmonies.  This will suffice.  Order my compositions! from me." 

He includes a poem, Darkness in the Room, on the back cover.  "From forth my fingers rare tunes come fast/ No mortal's melody recalls/ but all your feelings fill/ With heaven's dream and bring sweet joy to last."		  


Some New Discoveries! in SCIENCE and ART by Louis M. Eilshemius.  Louis Michel Eilshemius printed material, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.  


According to William Schack's 1939 biography, And he sat among the ashes, the first set of pieces that Eilshemius composed for the piano was Six Musical Moods.  Eilshemius felt that these pieces were some of his "best in print," noting that he had to publish them himself when some of the larger music publishing houses passed because they were "too classical for the market."  Six Musical Moods could be purchased directly from the composer for $1.50. 

 
Six Musical Moods, piano score by Louis M. Eilshemius.  Aline Fruhaf  papers, Archives of American Art,
Smithsonian Institution.

Click here to hear a piano recording of Elshemius' Six Musical  Moods



Letter from Louis M. Eilshemius to Hyman Kaitz, no
date.  Hyman Kaitz papers, Archives of American
Art, Smithsonian Institution. 

 

 

He lamented further in a letter to Hyman Kaitz, "As a composer I rank with the German galaxy, but not one publisher would bring out any of my 50 compositions."

 


Louis Michel Eilshemius, undated.
Copyprint, 11.5 x 14.7 cm.  Photographs
of Artists, Collection I.  Archives of
American Art, Smithsonian Institution

 A 1935 article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Eilshemius was discovered by Marcel Duchamp at the Independents' Salon of America in New York.  Valentine Dudensing was a champion of his work, and several prominent critics praised his work in the 1930s.  However, Eilshemius never felt that he received the recognition he deserved.  "Jack Yeats was right," he wrote to Elihu Root, "The mediocre are jealous of the superior.  That is partly the case that my life has been a continuous struggle against irrecognition."



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