83 - LOUIS MICHEL EILSHEMIUS (AMERICAN 1864-1941)

LOUIS MICHEL EILSHEMIUS (AMERICAN 1864-1941) Fire Rescue, circa 1910s oil on canvas 64.5 x 84.9 cm (25 3/8 x 33 3/8 in.) framed dimensions: 82.9 x 102.8 (32 5/8 x 40 1/2 in.) signed lower right PROVENANCE Sloan's Auction, Washington, D.C., October 1999 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Private Collection, Virginia LOT NOTES Eilshemius was largely ignored in his own time and championed after Marcel Duchamp “discovered” him in 1917. Beyond his idyllic landscapes and nudes, he painted a body of dramatic, melodramatic narrative pictures, and this is a strong example. A bearded gentleman in a stovepipe hat and frock coat carries a fainting woman in white from a blazing street. Behind him, a steam pumper belches smoke and red-shirted firemen haul their hose toward the flames. Embers rain down through the dark, and the scene is set inside a painted, rounded spandrel, a framing device Eilshemius used often. With its 19th-century fire company and theatrical staging, the picture shows the naive intensity that made him a favorite of modernists and collectors of self-taught art. His work is held by the Hirshhorn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Phillips Collection. Keywords: Self-taught Artist, American Outsider Artist, Eilshemius Fire Scene, Hirshhorn, Duchamp Discovery, Steam Fire Engine N.B. Condition reports are available upon request. All lots are sold in as-is condition at the time of sale. Please note that any condition statement regarding works of art is given as a courtesy to our clients in order to assist them in assessing the condition. The report is a genuine opinion held by Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals LLC and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report or a photograph does not preclude the absence of defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any others. Shapiro Auctions & Appraisals, LLC., including its consultants and agents, shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.