  First information on the timelike electromagnetic structure of baryons in the
second resonance region has been obtained from measurements of invariant mass
and angular distributions in the quasi-free reaction $\pi^- p \to nee$ at
$\sqrt{s_{\pi^- p}}$ = 1.49 GeV with the High Acceptance Di-Electron
Spectrometer (HADES) detector at GSI using the pion beam impinging on a CH$_2$
target. We find a total cross section $\sigma (\pi^- p \to nee) = 2.97 \pm
0.07^{data} \pm 0.21^{acc} \pm 0.31^{\rm{Z}_{\rm{eff}}} \mu$b. Combined with
the Partial Wave Analysis of the concurrently measured two-pion channel, these
data sets provide a crucial test of Vector Meson Dominance (VMD) inspired
models. The commonly used "strict VMD" approach strongly overestimates the
$e^+e^-$ yield. Instead, approaches based on a VMD amplitude vanishing at small
$e^+e^-$ invariant masses supplemented coherently by a direct photon amplitude
provide a better agreement. A good description of the data is also obtained
using a calculation of electromagnetic timelike baryon transition form factors
in a covariant spectator-quark model, demonstrating the dominance of meson
cloud effects. The angular distributions of $e^+e^-$ pairs demonstrate the
contributions of virtual photons with longitudinal polarization, in contrast to
real photons. The virtual photon angular dependence supports the dominance of
J=3/2, I=1/2 contributions observed in both the $\gamma^{\star} n$ and the $\pi
\pi n$ channels.
