Emile Eisman-Semenowsky (1854 - 1918). Emile Eisman-Semenowsky, born Emil Eismann was a French painter of Russian birth and Polish, possibly Jewish, ancestry. He specialized in portraits of women; including many in the Orientalist style. There are few documented sources concerning his life and education, although it is known that he emigrated at an early age and arrived in Paris in the 1880s, where he began doing sentimentalized portraits of upper class women, tailored to bourgeois tastes. He also worked as an assistant to the Belgian painter, Jan van Beers; serving as a witness in a case involving two critics who accused Van Beers of copying from photographs. In addition to portraits, he did some nudes and genre scenes. He often worked in Algeria, beginning in 1890; depicting women in traditional costume, as well as their daily dress. Many of his paintings are in private collections in the United States.