Oil on fiberboard, signed at lower left, presented in a giltwood frame.

Board 10 x 7 in.; Frame dimensions 16 3/8 x 13 1/4 in.

Private Collection, Raleigh, North Carolina

Born into a wealthy New Jersey family, Louis Eilshemius began his art studies at the Art Students League in New York. He spent several years in Germany and France before settling in New York City in the 1880s.

Eilshemius was greatly influenced by thr work of Albert Pinkham Ryder. It was not until Eilshemius distanced himself from the academic and traditional style of his teachings to embrace a more surreal and expressionist quality that he achieved some recognition for his work. In 1917, the French modernist, Marcel Duchamp, praised his submission to the Society of Independent Artists Exhibit as one of the best paintings in the show.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Eilshemius' work was sought after and acquired by the most important collectors and museums in the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller; Walter P. Chrysler Jr.; and Victor Ganz.

Good estate condition, minor wear at the edges of the board, a very slight area of retouching at left edge visible under UV light inspection.