His Masterpiece - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

Eric DeVoe, through circumstances, is forced into a marriage with Florence Bennet. They live together but for a short time and Eric returns to the studio to live alone. They later decide upon a divorce and he leaves the city on a ...See moreEric DeVoe, through circumstances, is forced into a marriage with Florence Bennet. They live together but for a short time and Eric returns to the studio to live alone. They later decide upon a divorce and he leaves the city on a cross-country sketching tour, walking, while she files for divorce upon grounds of desertion. During the walk he comes to the farm of Jacoby Dexter, who has a daughter, Doris. Eric remains to paint for a while, and soon they fall in love. He tells her of his pending divorce and that he will marry her as soon as it is procured. Florence learns of Eric's affair and stops the divorce proceedings for spite. Later he returns to the city, but to his horror Florence now refuses him the divorce. He pleads with her but to no avail. He returns to the farm to tell Doris of the difficulty he is having over the divorce, and to assure her that everything will come out all right in the end, and then returns to the city. Later, Doris becomes desperate and having lost all hope, she writes him a letter telling him of the real existing conditions and that by the time this letter reaches him, she will have ended it all down in the marsh. After sending the letter she goes to the marsh. Eric upon receiving this pitiful letter of farewell is in a mental panic. In his distorted fancy, he sees her as she enters the marsh, and with this conception he grasps his pallette and starts to paint madly. For three days and nights, stopping neither for food or rest, he paints and then as it is finished he falls exhausted. He is found and sent to the hospital with brain fever. The painting is named "L'Amour Abime," or "The Lost Love," and sent to the exhibit, where it hangs in the place of honor. Then, too late, his wife, seeing what she has caused, grants him his divorce. After sending the letter to Eric telling of her intention and going to the marsh to drown herself, she is seen and rescued by her father. She then tells her father for the first time of her existing conditions and writes to Eric telling him she is still alive, but the letter lies at his studio while he is at the hospital. Weeks pass and Doris, receiving no word from Eric, comes to the conclusion that he doesn't wish to return, and becoming desperate begs her father to take her away, where no one will know. He grants her wish and they leave. Eric leaves the hospital with the divorce and returns to the studio, where he finds Doris's letter telling she is alive. He rushes back to the farm only to find that it is deserted and that the whereabouts of Doris and her father are unknown. He then returns to the city burdened with sorrow. Doris and her father having taken up life in their new home, desperately await the end. Later she accidentally sees the notice of Eric's illness and of his divorce in an old paper. This explains to her why he didn't come to her or answer her letter and she begs her father to take her back to the farm as Eric may have been there looking for her. Eric is irresistibly drawn back to the farm and to his old trysting places and while he wanders from one familiar spot to another, Doris and her father return. They meet and after they are happily married, their child is born, and Eric is soon hard at work again with brush and palette. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less