The Taos Art Colony was a important and
groundbreaking group of painters, many of whom had immigrated from or
studied in Europe, who gathered and worked together near the Taos
Pueblo in New Mexico in the late 19th century. The
historically important Taos Society of Artists began there in 1915,
several decades after founding members Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Geer Phillips settled in the area around 1898.
Joseph Henry Sharp was one of the six
original members of the Taos Society and is considered to be its
“Spiritual Father”. The original members of the group, known
collectively as the “Taos Six” included Sharp, Eanger Irving Couse, Oscar Berninghaus, Bert Geer Phillips, W. Herbert Dunton, and
Ernest Blumenschein. Later members included E. Martin Hennings and
Walter Ufer. The group was inspired by the tradition, history, and
beauty of the area and the Native American people who had lived there
for nearly a thousand years. The artists created landscape paintings
of the southwest deserts and mountains, and painted intimate
portraits of the local inhabitants who had a long artistic tradition
that included native crafts. Members of the Taos Society of artists
often used rich, vibrant colors in their works, a break from the more
monochromatic and traditional palettes seen in that era.
Sharp was born in Ohio in 1859 and
became deaf as a child as a result of a near-drowning accident. At
age 14 he moved to Cincinnati Ohio to live with his aunt and studied
art at Mickmicken University, and later traveled to Europe to study
at the Antwerp Academy.
He was one of the first American
painters to visit the Taos area in 1893, and he quickly fell in love
with the local people, their culture, and the landscape. He set up
his artist’s studio there in 1909. He moved permanently to Taos in
1912 where he became internationally known for his portraits,
landscapes, and genre scenes that prominently feature and celebrate
Native Americans. J.H. Sharp was awarded the Gold Medal at the
Panama-California Exposition in 1915, and was a member of the
Salamagundi Club, the Society of Western Artists and the Artists'
Guild of Chicago.
J.H Sharp is remembered for his
portraits of Native Americans in the Southwest that feature close
attention to detail and visually illustrate the spirit, character,
and essence of the subject. He is also known for his Western
landscape paintings. He passed away in 1953, in Pasadena, where he
had established a studio in 1910.
President Theodore Roosevelt
commissioned Sharp to paint 200 portraits of Native Americans, 11 of
which are now in the Smithsonian Institute. Phoebe Hearst, William
Randolph Hearst's mother, purchased 155 of Sharp's paintings which
she eventually donated to U.C. Berkeley. The largest collection of
the artist's works is held by the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa Oklahoma,
and his paintings can also be found at the Amon Carter Museum,
Houston Museum of Fine Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and in many
other significant private collections worldwide.
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| Joseph Henry Sharp (1859 - 1953) "Bawling Deer" 16 x 14 inches SOLD |
E.I. Couse
Eanger Irving Couse was born in Saginaw, Michigan, where he first started drawing
the Chippewa Indians who lived nearby. Couse worked hard to pay for
his art education, occasionally dropping out to earn money while
attending the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Academy of
Design. In 1897 Couse left for Paris to study at the Academie
Julian, where he met the American artist, Joseph Henry Sharp, who
often spoke of Taos. Couse would become a frequent visitor and
resident of Taos from 1902 on. In 1912 when the historically
important Taos Society of Artists was formed, Couse was elected its
first President. E. Irving Couse is best known for his intimate
images of Native Americans in moments of spiritual ceremony and quiet
repose.
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| E.I. Couse (1866 - 1936) "Figure by a Stream" 12 x 16 inches SOLD |
Oscar Berninghaus
Born in St.
Louis, Missouri in 1874, Oscar Berninghaus was an important Southwest
painter who was another founder of the Taos Society of artists in
1915. He and his group were instrumental in transforming the small
Colony in Taos into an internationally known art center. Berninghaus’
works are widely admired for their ability to capture the spirit and
character of Native Americans in traditional clothing as they
genuinely appeared in their day to day, 20th century lives. He is
also remembered for his outstanding Western Landscape paintings,
especially desert scenes that often include horses, as well as
portraits and figurative works portraying cowboys.
His early works
were colorful and strongly influenced by Impressionism. He studied
at the St. Louis School of Fine Art and, in 1898, was an illustrator
for "McClure's" magazine. He was asked by the magazine to
travel to New Mexico and Arizona and he became enchanted by the
natural beauty of the area. He met fellow artist, Bert Geer Phillips
and began to spend each Summer in Taos.
He had a long
successful career and was commissioned by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing
Association to do a series of Western scenes. He also created
landscape paintings of the area for the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad, and painted a mural in Phoenix, Arizona in 1931 for the
Post Office building. Berninghaus died at the age of 77 on April 27,
1952, as a result of a recent heart attack and is considered to be
one of the most important and influential early Southwest American
artists.
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| Oscar Berninghaus (1874 - 1952) "Riders on the Rio Grande" SOLD |
Bert Geer Phillips
Bert Geer Phillips was born in Hudson, New York, in 1868. In 1883 he began
five years study at the Art Students League and the National Academy
of Design in New York, where he found work as an artist following his
training. Opting for more schooling, Phillips left in 1894 for
London and Paris, where he met Joseph Henry Sharp and Ernest
Blumenschein. Sharp never missed an opportunity to share tales of
Taos, New Mexico, and in 1898, Phillips and Blumenschein bought a
wagon and headed west. When their wagon broke near Taos, the men
ended their trek and rented studios in the town. Blumenschein and
Phillips were founding members of Taos Art Colony. Phillips was a
collector of Native American artifacts. Pieces from his collection
would often appear in his vivid, semi-romantic paintings of the
Southwest.
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| Bert Geer Phillips (1868 - 1956) "Conchita of Taos" 8 x 6 inches SOLD |
E. Martin Hennings
E. Martin Hennings was born in Pennsgrove, New Jersey, in 1886, and raised in
Chicago. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the
Art Institute of Chicago before enrolling in the Munich Academy in
1914, where he first began to abandon his classical realist training.
With the onset of WW I, Hennings returned to Chicago, where he was
an instructor at the Art Institute. In 1917 he was sponsored to
travel to the southwest. It was on this trip that Hennings first
discovered Taos, New Mexico where he’d move permanently in 1924,
banding together with friends from Munich, Walter Ufer and Victor
Higgins. All three artists eventually joined the Taos Society of
Artists. The remainder of Hennings’ life was devoted to rich
painterly works that venerated his Native American subjects.
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| E. Martin Hennings (1886 - 1956) "Out in the Sage" 25 x 30 inches SOLD |
Walter Ufer
Walter Ufer was
born in Germany in 1876, and came to the U.S. the next year, settling
in Kentucky. Having shown talent at an early age, he was apprenticed
to a lithography firm, before leaving for Europe to study at the
Royal Academy in Munich, where he met Joseph Henry Sharp and Ernest
Blumenschein. Upon his return to the states, Ufer worked as an
illustrator in Chicago before moving permanently to Taos in 1917,
where he joined Taos Society of Artists.
Throughout the
remainder of his career, Ufer concentrated on simple, non-dramatized
paintings of the Native American. Though hampered at times by
chronic alcoholism, his work won him great acclaim, and earned him
membership in the National Academy of Design in New York.
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| Walter Ufer (1876 - 1936) "Song of the Corn" 12 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches SOLD |
