Taos Society of Artists
Taos Society of Artists Founding Members (left to right): B.G. Phillips, W.H. Dunton, J.H. Sharp, O.E. Berninghaus, E.I. Couse and E.L. Blumenschein, 1915
The Society was formed to help the members market their paintings, especially in the East.
The artist Joseph H. Sharp first visited Taos while on a sketching trip in 1883 and was captivated by its enchanting atmosphere. He is often called the artist who “started it all.” Later, while studying in Paris, he shared his enthusiasm with two artist friends, Bert G. Phillips and Ernest L. Blumenschein. As a result of a broken wagon wheel on September 3, 1898, the two artists stayed in the Taos area instead of completing their scheduled trip to Mexico. Back in Paris, Blumenschein met E.I. Couse and told him of a mystical mountainous region. Intrigued, Couse was also inspired to explore Taos. Oscar E. Berninghaus joined the Taos artists, and with the addition of Herbert Dunton, a painter of cowboys and ranch life, the “Founding” group numbered six. On July 1, 1915, the Taos Society of Artists held its first meeting. The Society was formed to help the members market their paintings, especially in the East. The Santa Fe Railroad was instrumental in the success of these artists also because they purchased paintings that were used to market railroad travel to the West.
The group met Walter Ufer and Victor Higgins, who were elected Active Members in July 1917. Julius Rolshoven became an Associate Member in 1917 and then an active member in 1918. E. Martin Hennings became an Active Member in 1924. The only woman in the group, Catherine C. Critcher, also became an Active Member in 1924. Kenneth Adams, the last and youngest member of the group, became a member in 1926, only one year before the group disbanded.
Bert Geer Phillips (1868-1956)
Born in Hudson, New York, Phillips began drawing before he could write. As a small child, he won first prize at the county fair for a collection of watercolors. After studying at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design, Phillips set up a studio in New York, where he painted for the next five years. He then spent seven months in England, where he produced some charming watercolors of pastoral scenes. Finally, in Paris, Phillips studied at the Academie Julien, where he met Joseph Sharp and Ernest Blumenschein. In 1899, he married Rose Martin, an eastern girl visiting her brother, Dr. T. P. Martin. It was at Dr. Martin’s house in 1912 that the Taos Society of Artists was organized.
Ernest Blumenschein (1874-1960)
Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Blumenschein received a scholarship to study violin at the Cincinnati Conservatory when he was seventeen. After a year of music training, however, he chose to follow his interest in art. Blumenschein studied first at the Cincinnati Art Academy, then at the Art Students League in New York, and the Académie Julian in Paris, where he met Joseph Henry Sharp and Bert G. Phillips. From 1910 until 1918, he spent summers in Taos and the rest of the year in New York, where he worked as an illustrator and taught at the Art Students League. He moved to Taos permanently in 1909. His colleagues regarded him as the most accomplished painter of the group.
Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936)
In 1886, after attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League in New York, Couse went to Europe, where he remained for nearly ten years. While in Paris, he studied with the academic master Adolphe Bouguereau and frequently exhibited at the Salon. Couse first became interested in western subject matter after visiting his father-in-law’s sheep ranch in Oregon. In 1909 he established a studio in Taos, dividing his time between the Southwest and New York. Couse concentrated primarily on Native American portraits. When he died in 1936, he was among the best-known members of the Taos Society of Artists, producing more than fifteen hundred oil paintings.
Oscar E. Berninghaus (1874-1952)
Oscar E. Berninghaus, born in St. Louis, Missouri, displayed his inclination for art at an early age. At sixteen, he quit school to work for a lithography company and later attended night classes at the School of Fine Arts in St. Louis. In 1899, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad hired him to travel west to sketch and produce watercolors of the mountain scenery, people, and villages. During this journey, Berninghaus encountered the magic of Taos. He continued to return to Taos almost every summer for the next twenty-five years and moved there permanently in 1925. As early as 1905, his work received critical acclaim in the newspapers, with some writers comparing him to Frederic Remington. For most of his artistic career, Berninghaus painted models from life and landscapes from nature. In later years, however, his repertoire of stored images was so extensive that he could paint from memory as accurately as he had once painted from life.
Herbert “Buck” Dunton (1878-1936)
Dunton traveled extensively in the West as a young man, working as a ranch hand and cowboy. When he became a commercial illustrator, Dunton used this experience to authenticate details in sketches commissioned by such periodicals as Harper’s, Collier’s,and Scribner’s.A desire to study painting more seriously brought him in 1912 to the Art Students League, where his teacher, Ernest Blumenschein, suggested a visit to Taos. Dunton responded immediately to the pictorial richness of New Mexico, finding his favorite subjects in the wildlife and rugged mountain men of the region. During the Depression, suffering financially and increasingly in poor health, Dunton worked on the Public Works of Art Project murals and practiced lithography. His concern for preserving the vanishing spirit of the Old West exceeded that of all his artist colleagues in Taos.
Taos Society of Artists Founding Members (left to right): B.G. Phillips, W.H. Dunton, J.H. Sharp, O.E. Berninghaus, E.I. Couse and E.L. Blumenschein, 1915
Walter Ufer (1876-1936)
Walter Ufer was born in Huckeswagen, Germany. At the age of four, Ufer moved with his family to Louisville, Kentucky, where he grew up and trained as a lithographer. Ufer decided on a painting career after visiting the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He began his studies in Hamburg and then moved on to the Royal Academy in Dresden. In 1900 he took up commercial art and portrait painting in Chicago, but he went to Munich in 1911 for further study. When he returned, his talent attracted former Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, who offered to subsidize a trip to Taos in 1914. Ufer soon abandoned studio methods in favor of working outdoors in direct sunlight. His favorite subjects were Indians absorbed in their daily activities or traveling across the brilliant landscape. In 1920 he became the first Taos artist to win a prize at the Carnegie International, and through the rest of the decade, his dazzling brand of Impressionism retained considerable appeal.
Victor Higgins (1884-1949)
At fifteen, Victor Higgins defied his parents’ wishes and left his native Indiana for Chicago, where he studied at the Art Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts. Sponsored by ex-mayor and collector Carter Harrison, Higgins spent two and half years researching and traveling in Europe. While in Munich, he associated with fellow art students Walter Ufer and Martin Hennings. In 1914 Harrison sent him on a painting trip to New Mexico. Higgins found the intense light, brilliant color, and lure of the land a powerful antidote to the confines of academic training. He joined the Taos Society of Artists in 1917. Still, he continued to divide his time between Chicago and Taos for some years and exhibited in Indianapolis and New York, with an occasional painting sent to Europe. As a link between his more conservative colleagues and the emerging artistic developments of the twentieth century, Higgins wedded theory to his own intuitively derived visual harmonies. The result was a rich and varied body of work in still life, figure painting, and, most significantly, landscape.
Julius Rolshoven (1858-1930)
Born in Detroit Michigan in 1858, the son of a German goldsmith, Julius Rolshoven’s drawing ability was encouraged by his father to improve his engraving skills. In 1877 he started his studies with Ernst Plassman at the Cooper Union Academy in New York after being denied admission to the National Academy. In 1878 he left for Germany where he studied under Hugo Crola at the Academie of Dusseldorf and the Royal Academy of Munich. In 1882 he studied at the Academie Julian in Paris and then stayed there teaching for the next six years.
In 1916 he moved to Santa Fe and became an associate member of the Taos Society of Artists in 1917 and an active member in 1918. Because he was absent from the historic photograph of the Society members, he is not as well-known as the other founding members, and as such, Julius’ work is now scarce and difficult to find. His art is in collections at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the University of New Mexico, the Smithsonian Institution, the El Paso Museum of Art and several others.
Martin Hennings (1886-1956)
After graduating from high school, Hennings left his native Pennsgrove, New Jersey, for five years of study at the Art Institute of Chicago. His training continued for two years at the Royal Academy in Munich. Fellow art students in Munich included Walter Ufer and Victor Higgins. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hennings returned to Chicago, where he made his living as a muralist and commercial artist. At the urging of former Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, Hennings spent a few months in Taos in 1917. Four years later, he made Taos his permanent home, joining the Taos Society of Artists in 1924. His compositions, featuring stylized linen, decorative patterns, and warm colors, won him twelve national prizes between 1916 and 1938.
The artist Joseph H. Sharp first visited Taos while on a sketching trip in 1883 and was captivated by its enchanting atmosphere. He is often called the artist who “started it all.” Later, while studying in Paris, he shared his enthusiasm with two artist friends, Bert G. Phillips and Ernest L. Blumenschein. As a result of a broken wagon wheel on September 3, 1898, the two artists stayed in the Taos area instead of completing their scheduled trip to Mexico. Back in Paris, Blumenschein met E.I. Couse and told him of a mystical mountainous region. Intrigued, Couse was also inspired to explore Taos. Oscar E. Berninghaus joined the Taos artists, and with the addition of Herbert Dunton, a painter of cowboys and ranch life, the “Founding” group numbered six. On July 1, 1915, the Taos Society of Artists held its first meeting. The Society was formed to help the members market their paintings, especially in the East. The Santa Fe Railroad was instrumental in the success of these artists also because they purchased paintings that were used to market railroad travel to the West.
The group met Walter Ufer and Victor Higgins, who were elected Active Members in July 1917. Julius Rolshoven became an Associate Member in 1917 and then an active member in 1918. E. Martin Hennings became an Active Member in 1924. The only woman in the group, Catherine C. Critcher, also became an Active Member in 1924. Kenneth Adams, the last and youngest member of the group, became a member in 1926, only one year before the group disbanded.
Bert Geer Phillips (1868-1956)
Born in Hudson, New York, Phillips began drawing before he could write. As a small child, he won first prize at the county fair for a collection of watercolors. After studying at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design, Phillips set up a studio in New York, where he painted for the next five years. He then spent seven months in England, where he produced some charming watercolors of pastoral scenes. Finally, in Paris, Phillips studied at the Academie Julien, where he met Joseph Sharp and Ernest Blumenschein. In 1899, he married Rose Martin, an eastern girl visiting her brother, Dr. T. P. Martin. It was at Dr. Martin’s house in 1912 that the Taos Society of Artists was organized.
Ernest Blumenschein (1874-1960)
Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Blumenschein received a scholarship to study violin at the Cincinnati Conservatory when he was seventeen. After a year of music training, however, he chose to follow his interest in art. Blumenschein studied first at the Cincinnati Art Academy, then at the Art Students League in New York, and the Académie Julian in Paris, where he met Joseph Henry Sharp and Bert G. Phillips. From 1910 until 1918, he spent summers in Taos and the rest of the year in New York, where he worked as an illustrator and taught at the Art Students League. He moved to Taos permanently in 1909. His colleagues regarded him as the most accomplished painter of the group.
Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936)
In 1886, after attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League in New York, Couse went to Europe, where he remained for nearly ten years. While in Paris, he studied with the academic master Adolphe Bouguereau and frequently exhibited at the Salon. Couse first became interested in western subject matter after visiting his father-in-law’s sheep ranch in Oregon. In 1909 he established a studio in Taos, dividing his time between the Southwest and New York. Couse concentrated primarily on Native American portraits. When he died in 1936, he was among the best-known members of the Taos Society of Artists, producing more than fifteen hundred oil paintings.
Oscar E. Berninghaus (1874-1952)
Oscar E. Berninghaus, born in St. Louis, Missouri, displayed his inclination for art at an early age. At sixteen, he quit school to work for a lithography company and later attended night classes at the School of Fine Arts in St. Louis. In 1899, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad hired him to travel west to sketch and produce watercolors of the mountain scenery, people, and villages. During this journey, Berninghaus encountered the magic of Taos. He continued to return to Taos almost every summer for the next twenty-five years and moved there permanently in 1925. As early as 1905, his work received critical acclaim in the newspapers, with some writers comparing him to Frederic Remington. For most of his artistic career, Berninghaus painted models from life and landscapes from nature. In later years, however, his repertoire of stored images was so extensive that he could paint from memory as accurately as he had once painted from life.
Herbert “Buck” Dunton (1878-1936)
Dunton traveled extensively in the West as a young man, working as a ranch hand and cowboy. When he became a commercial illustrator, Dunton used this experience to authenticate details in sketches commissioned by such periodicals as Harper’s, Collier’s,and Scribner’s.A desire to study painting more seriously brought him in 1912 to the Art Students League, where his teacher, Ernest Blumenschein, suggested a visit to Taos. Dunton responded immediately to the pictorial richness of New Mexico, finding his favorite subjects in the wildlife and rugged mountain men of the region. During the Depression, suffering financially and increasingly in poor health, Dunton worked on the Public Works of Art Project murals and practiced lithography. His concern for preserving the vanishing spirit of the Old West exceeded that of all his artist colleagues in Taos.
Taos Society of Artists Founding Members (left to right): B.G. Phillips, W.H. Dunton, J.H. Sharp, O.E. Berninghaus, E.I. Couse and E.L. Blumenschein, 1915
Walter Ufer (1876-1936)
Walter Ufer was born in Huckeswagen, Germany. At the age of four, Ufer moved with his family to Louisville, Kentucky, where he grew up and trained as a lithographer. Ufer decided on a painting career after visiting the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He began his studies in Hamburg and then moved on to the Royal Academy in Dresden. In 1900 he took up commercial art and portrait painting in Chicago, but he went to Munich in 1911 for further study. When he returned, his talent attracted former Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, who offered to subsidize a trip to Taos in 1914. Ufer soon abandoned studio methods in favor of working outdoors in direct sunlight. His favorite subjects were Indians absorbed in their daily activities or traveling across the brilliant landscape. In 1920 he became the first Taos artist to win a prize at the Carnegie International, and through the rest of the decade, his dazzling brand of Impressionism retained considerable appeal.
Victor Higgins (1884-1949)
At fifteen, Victor Higgins defied his parents’ wishes and left his native Indiana for Chicago, where he studied at the Art Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts. Sponsored by ex-mayor and collector Carter Harrison, Higgins spent two and half years researching and traveling in Europe. While in Munich, he associated with fellow art students Walter Ufer and Martin Hennings. In 1914 Harrison sent him on a painting trip to New Mexico. Higgins found the intense light, brilliant color, and lure of the land a powerful antidote to the confines of academic training. He joined the Taos Society of Artists in 1917. Still, he continued to divide his time between Chicago and Taos for some years and exhibited in Indianapolis and New York, with an occasional painting sent to Europe. As a link between his more conservative colleagues and the emerging artistic developments of the twentieth century, Higgins wedded theory to his own intuitively derived visual harmonies. The result was a rich and varied body of work in still life, figure painting, and, most significantly, landscape.
Julius Rolshoven (1858-1930)
Born in Detroit Michigan in 1858, the son of a German goldsmith, Julius Rolshoven’s drawing ability was encouraged by his father to improve his engraving skills. In 1877 he started his studies with Ernst Plassman at the Cooper Union Academy in New York after being denied admission to the National Academy. In 1878 he left for Germany where he studied under Hugo Crola at the Academie of Dusseldorf and the Royal Academy of Munich. In 1882 he studied at the Academie Julian in Paris and then stayed there teaching for the next six years.
In 1916 he moved to Santa Fe and became an associate member of the Taos Society of Artists in 1917 and an active member in 1918. Because he was absent from the historic photograph of the Society members, he is not as well-known as the other founding members, and as such, Julius’ work is now scarce and difficult to find. His art is in collections at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the University of New Mexico, the Smithsonian Institution, the El Paso Museum of Art and several others.
Martin Hennings (1886-1956)
After graduating from high school, Hennings left his native Pennsgrove, New Jersey, for five years of study at the Art Institute of Chicago. His training continued for two years at the Royal Academy in Munich. Fellow art students in Munich included Walter Ufer and Victor Higgins. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hennings returned to Chicago, where he made his living as a muralist and commercial artist. At the urging of former Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, Hennings spent a few months in Taos in 1917. Four years later, he made Taos his permanent home, joining the Taos Society of Artists in 1924. His compositions, featuring stylized linen, decorative patterns, and warm colors, won him twelve national prizes between 1916 and 1938.