Dreyfuss Case

Many an artist has been accused of insanity. There was the bovine Rousseau who was the laugh of Paris in his day and "Pere" Cezanne of whom the worthies of Aix said, with a shrug: "Surely he is mad." Today the sale of a Rousseau or a Cezanne is an art event. They run into five figures. America had Blakelock, painter of dark, glowing Indian encampments, who was committed to an insane asylum and kept in for the greater part of his life. It is well for the Fauves* of Paris that solicitous friends and relatives never sought court injunctions. Wild-beast Henri Matisse is still considered batty by many a staid U. S. art critic.

Manhattan now has an artistic Dreyfuss case. Last week there went to the chambers of Supreme Court Justice Curtis A. Peters, one Albert Dreyfuss, sculptor--49, stocky, German-looking, black mustache, baldish head, a harassed expression. He came for a private hearing to establish his sanity so that he could sculp without interference.

In American Art Annual Sculptor Dreyfuss is listed as a sculptor and writer, pupil of George Grey Barnard, member of the Art Students' League of New York, sometime Instructor in Modeling at Cooper Union, Manhattan. Among his works is the Arsenal Park Memorial in Pittsburgh. His wealthy family say he is insane. They want him locked up.

"Unable to comprehend the psychology of one who pursues the arts instead of following more gainful occupations," the Dreyfusses committed the sculptor-son to Bellevue Hospital's Psychopathic Ward last year. Here he was kept for six days in the company of ailing thugs and alcoholic cutups. After Bellevue he summered in the Asylum for the Insane on Ward's Island in the East River. Thence, because zealous friends were seeing him without the family's permission, he was transferred to the exclusive Dr. McDonald's Sanitarium at Central Valley, N. Y., where in durance grand, at a reported cost of $200 a week, the family kept him.

Appeared at the hearing many artistic friends of the sculptor, equally convinced of his rationality and "artistic magnificence." Among these was Arthur Lee, Norwegian-born sculptor who recently contended in Oilman Ernest Whitworth Marland's competition for the Pioneer Woman and whose torso, "Volupte," is lodged in the Metropolitan Museum. Another was Samilla Love Jameson (married name: Heinzmann) who lately completed a bust of Tammany's 100-year-old Grand Sachem John Richard Voorhis (TIME, Aug. 5). She offered to sell the bust to the highest bidder for money to help the cause. Others were Tamara Loeb, Guggenheim prize winner in sculpture and W. B. Graham, dance critic. All attested to Dreyfuss's sanity and volunteered to post a bond to insure against his becoming a public charge should he be released.

At the hearing a battery of alienists and attorneys came forth and electrified the air with attacks on Sculptor Dreyfuss's memory and intelligence. They argued his "unsociability," "potentiality to become a dangerous citizen." Two physicians from the Manhattan Hospital said he was suffering from dementia praecox and had delusions of persecution by his mother and brother.

The sculptor's friends maintained he was sent to the asylum on a false and illegal petition of his brother, Walter Ludwig Dreyfuss, wax-paper manufacturer. The sculptor's friends asked for a jury trial saying: "His sanity can be established before any judge or tribunal." This was denied them. After three hours, the bewildered Dreyfuss, as his own chief witness, spoke of the time he was losing while he was incarcerated. In a calm, plaintive voice he said: "I am 49 years old. I can never regain these days I am losing. I harbor no ill will toward anyone and my only desire is to work and live at peace with all the world." Justice Peters ordered him sent back to the asylum.

* "WiId-beasts," insurgent painters so-called by the academicians of Paris.