{"id":2480,"date":"2011-07-29T22:55:16","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T04:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asylumeclectica.com\/grim\/?p=2480"},"modified":"2011-07-29T22:55:16","modified_gmt":"2011-07-30T04:55:16","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-july-29-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=2480","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour For July 29, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Promising Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one knew why a photograph of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was displayed so prominently in the studio of the promising painter Henry Alexander – and to this day it remains a mystery.\u00a0 Few took the time to know the young modernist artist after he arrived from San Francisco, determined to make a name for himself in New York City.\u00a0 Other artists in his building went to lengths to avoid Alexander, since he quickly made a reputation begging for money that he never repaid.\u00a0 Whatever cash he got was spent on whiskey and painting supplies.\u00a0 He was definitely not an orphan, and according to a surviving sister, came from Californian pioneer stock and studied in Europe.\u00a0 Nevertheless, he was deemed noteworthy enough in the art scene to warrant an article about his death in the New York Times, published on May 16, 1894.\u00a0 The landlord of his artist studio had padlocked the door because he had paid only three months\u2019 rent in the prior year.\u00a0 Alexander pleaded with the landlord for access to retrieve one painting that he could sell for $150, and clear up his arrears.\u00a0 Apparently, Alexander did find a buyer, and instead, used the funds to go on a binge.\u00a0 Alexander checked into a decent hotel, and two days after the night porter heard agonizing groans coming from his room.\u00a0 When hotel staff opened the door with a pass key, they found Alexander sprawled unconscious on the floor.\u00a0 An empty bottle of whisky and a drained can of metal polisher (Oxalic acid) were on the table.\u00a0 The Times concluded, \u201cLack of funds, it is thought, caused the artist to take his life.\u201d\u00a0 Before he died (at age thirty-four), Alexander\u2019s work was exhibited in a number of galleries, and seemed to offer promise of better things to come.\u00a0 He liked to paint the interiors of churches, and his most famous piece was prophetically titled \u201cLost Genius\u201d.\u00a0 The acid he ingested was sold as\u00a0 a product called Bar Keepers Friend, which was presumably used to polish brass and not knock off patrons who didn\u2019t pay their tab.\u00a0 Records from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, located on 137th street and Amsterdam in New York City, indicated that a thirty-five-dollar anonymous donation was made the day before Alexander died, though no child with his surname was registered.<\/p>\n

Culled from: Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Promising Yet Truly Morbid Fact! No one knew why a photograph of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was displayed so prominently in the studio of the promising painter Henry Alexander – and to this day it remains a mystery.\u00a0 Few took the time to know the young modernist artist after he arrived from San Francisco, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}