# Three Girls and River

**Louis M. Eilshemius** (New Jersey, 1864–1941)  
1907  
oil on fiberboard  
23 x 27 in. (58.5 x 68.5 cm)

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1980.34.3. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=7979).

## About this work

Louis M. Eilshemius is best known for his romanticized and often erotically charged landscapes that contain nude women or nymphs. In Three Girls and River, three nude women relax in a bucolic setting with lush trees and a babbling river. The figures seem to be together, but they do not interact and appear blissfully uninhibited by each other and their surroundings. By placing the dreamlike figures in a picturesque yet familiar setting, Eilshemius blurred the line between reality and fantasy.

_Text from the Smithsonian American Art Museum._

Louis M. Eilshemius painted this in 1907, aged 43. It is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Louis M. Eilshemius](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/louis-m-eilshemius)

New Jersey, 1864–1941

Eilshemius studied in New York and at the Académie Julian in Paris and travelled widely, as far as Samoa, painting romantic landscapes and nudes that found few admirers. Marcel Duchamp singled out his work at the 1917 exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, and modernist circles later championed him, but he had stopped painting around 1921 and spent his last decades writing eccentric, self-promoting pamphlets and letters.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- The artist was 43
- Real size: about 23 × 27 in (59 × 69 cm). The 18 × 24 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 20th century
- Subjects: Women, Landscapes, Figure group, Rivers
- Colour: olive
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1958.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1958/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/three-girls-and-river-si-saam-1980-34-3).