Emma Eilers

Emma Eilers (September 12, 1870 – March 27, 1951) was an American painter from Sea Cliff, New York, who, despite her uncontrollable shakes, was attributed regionally for her work.

Emma Eilers was born to her parents Anton Eilers and Elizabeth (Emrich) Eilers September 12, 1870, in the town of Morrisania (now a neighborhood of the Bronx), becoming the 5th of 6 siblings. Census records suggest that during her first 10 years she spent most of her moving picture in Morrisania, growing happening amongst her relations and German- American relations who lived nearby.

Sometime in the midst of 1878 and 1881, her parents moved to Denver, Colorado, for a few years during which Anton became a flourishing mining engineer and smelter trailblazer in the region, specifically in Leadville and Pueblo, Colorado. In the span of just a few years, she would see her family's life amend dramatically as the Eilers relations accumulated great financial gains that allowed them to buy multiple homes, travel more easily amongst New York and Colorado, and now travel amid Germany and the US.

Unlike her oldest sister Else, who would graduate from Denver High School in 1883 or her brother Karl who graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1884, Emma associated her three sisters (Louise, Anna & Meta) whom all graduated from the Packer Collegiate Institute, with Emma obtaining her diploma on June 12, 1889.

Given her father's success, Emma was able to pursue her concentration in art at her leisure. In 1889, around the time of her graduation from tall school, she co-founded the Club Women of New York, which cutting edge became the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA). Founding members included Adele Bedell, Anita Ashley, one of the further on presidents, and Olive Brown, Matilda De Cordoba, Ethel Prellwitz, Elizabeth Watrous, Fanny Tewksbury, Elizabeth Cheever and, of course, Emma Eilers.

In late 1892, she travelled later the entire intimates to visit relations in Germany as share of her sister Anna's wedding to Hans Weber. This is her and no-one else known international trip.

At some narrowing during the 1890s, Emma studied at the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art, which was the first important summer art studious in America devoted to En plein air painting, or painting outdoors. This is the only verified time she attended an art school.

By the late 1890s, Emma seems to have become a skilled artist. For example, in 1897, the Brooklyn Eagle reported that "Miss Eilers of St.Marks avenue does some of the strongest and best work at the league. Her painting of the figure is fine, unsurpassed by any new attendant of the famous art school ...". Later in the year, according to other Brooklyn Eagle Article, she was flourishing working "with mural and supplementary designs. A composition having for its subject St.Francis D'Assisi and the Birds was one in which the drawing and color were excellent".

According to The New York Times , in 1899 one of her paintings was one of several Art Students' League of New York pieces exhibited at a Paris Exposition, which was after that presented as a permanent exhibit at the Musee Pedagogique. During the winter of 1899, Emma was painting out of Miss Kate Dow's studio, in the 'Bank Building', where regular art shows were held, as Kate had just traveled to Paris.

From the 1890s through the 1920s she and three of her sisters lived, unmarried, with their father and mother, splitting times between homes in Brooklyn, NY, and Sea Cliff, NY. Music was a big part of the family's life, with her oldest sister Else a 'fine' pianist, according to several new articles and her sister Meta an excellent violinist. By 1898, the 'Misses Eilers' would host all Monday afternoon Sight Reading Class of 20 women, which the Brooklyn Eagle described as 'the latest novelty in the Hill society'. At least some of this love of music likely was the upshot of Emma's brother Karl Eilers marrying Leonie Wurlitzer, daughter of the founder of the Wurlitzer Company, Rudolph Wurlitzer. Whether Emma played any instruments or actively participated in music following her sisters is unknown.

Between 1918 and 1921, both Emma's mom and father, along later than sisters Louise and Meta, would pass away, though Emma yet had her oldest sister Else successful at Sea Cliff along behind her brother, Karl, and his wife and 3 children nearby.

It's unidentified how early Emma developed creature shakes that the associates called her 'palsy', but several first hand accounts describe how her brush would shake right stirring to the point where brush met canvas and then, suddenly, smooth strokes would appear. Dinner become old was plus a slightly Strange experience for visitors as Emma's 'shakes' would cause the table to shake at times, rattling silverware, plates and glasses.

While Emma's take effect is not generally with ease known, she did paint regularly in her large studio at Sea Cliff until her death upon March 27, 1951. Her studio has since been converted into a house and still exists. Emma was the last of her 6 siblings to die, passing away at her Sea Cliff home that was the Eilers family home for beyond 5 decades.

At the period of her death, relatives tab that her studio was full of paints of various sizes, "they were laying everywhere". Some of her paintings passed alongside to relatives, some have recently appeared at auction, but most appear to have been destroyed.