Metropolitan & Mahatma

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art came a routine Press announcement last week. Following its new policy of buying contemporary works of U. S. artists, the museum had acquired five canvases--Disappointed Fisherman by Henry Varnum Poor from the Montross Galleries and four others chosen from the current biennial display at the Whitney Museum: Blue Heron by Jonas Lie; In a Cafe by Adolphe Barie; Union Square by David Morrison; Delaware Water Gap Village by Louis Michiel Eilshemius.

It was the last that caused critics' mouths to drop. Louis Eilshemius is a little old gentleman with a beard, a beady eye and the butt of a frayed cigar, who is known as New York's most persistent exhibition visitor. He is one of the most persistent newspaper letter writers in the country. Not long ago he adopted the title Mahatma (Great Soul) and has spent a small fortune printing little pamphlets and books to prove that he is the greatest painter, poet, musician and "Ex Fancy Amateur Dancer" in the world. He has also invented a portable piano and a game like pinochle known as "Sixers" (TIME, Feb. 29).

Had the Mahatma protested less, the art world almost certainly would have accepted him sooner. About a year and one-half ago critics discovered for themselves that the ingenuous, colorful little canvases of the Mahatma Eilshemius really are worthy of serious attention. He was hailed as the "American Rousseau." Museums and collectors interested in modern art hastened to buy his pictures. At his exhibition at the Valentine Galleries in New York in March, 40 canvases were sold, almost a Depression record. Among the purchasers were the Detroit and Cleveland Museums but few critics ever expected the sedate Metropolitan to join the procession.

The Mahatma received the news last week in bed where he has been suffering with a torn ligament from an automobile accident in July. He was not surprised.

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