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OSCAR BERNINGHAUS 

Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1874, Oscar Berninghaus was an important Southwest painter who helped found the widely-known Taos Society of artists in New Mexico in 1915.  This organization was instrumental in transforming the small Colony in Taos into an internationally known art center, and the original members were known as the “Taos Six”. The original members also included Joseph Henry Sharp, E. Irving Couse, W. Herbert Dunton, Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Geer Phillips. Later members included E. Martin Hennings, Walter Ufer, and Victor Higgins. 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. In 1937 he painted another mural entitled “Border Gateways” in the Fort Scott federal courthouse, a project funded by the Treasury Section of the Fine Arts, an agency that was part of the New Deal public works project.  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.

For additional information, visit:
Wikipedia
”The Forty Niners” at the Sid Richardson Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum - Berninghaus “Red Pepper Time”
New Mexico Museum of Art - “The Rabbit Hunter”

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