The Story of the Taos Society of Artists
/Taos has been the home of Native artisans and craftsmen for hundreds of years, but the dawning of the art movement there as we know it began with an Anglo artist named Joseph H. Sharp.
Joseph H. Sharp (1859-1953)
Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936) - Crane Hunter, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in. E
Though he didn’t immediately settle there, Taos made an impression on Joseph Sharp. He later won a commission from President Theodore Roosevelt to paint the survivors of the Battle of Little Bighorn and spent months living among the Crow people in Montana.
After selling 80 paintings to Phoebe Hearst, Joseph Henry Sharp finally returned to Taos to build his studio, now the Couse/Sharp Historic Site.
During the previous years when Sharp had been away from Taos, he raved about its unrivaled light and landscape and bountiful creative opportunities to any artist who’d listen. It didn’t take long before they began to take him up on his offer to visit.
The original six members of the Taos Society pictured in Virginia Couse’s garden, 1915
(From left: Ernest Blumenschein, Oscar E. Berninghaus, E. Irving Couse, Joseph Sharp, Bert Phillips, and W. Herbert “Buck” Dunton)
Artists Bert G. Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein, both acquainted with Sharp from their time at the Académie Julian, famously broke down on a rural trail several miles outside of Taos whilst headed to Mexico. Blumenschein ventured into town to have the wheel repaired while Phillips stayed with the wagon.
“The month was September, and the fertile valley a beautiful sight, and inspiration for those who ply the brush for happiness,” Blumenschein remembered.
By the time Blumenschein returned, both he and Phillips had reached the same conclusion. They were staying.
In 1915, Sharp co-founded the Taos Society of Artists with Eanger Irving Couse, who occupied the neighboring studio. The four other original members were Ernest Blumenschein, Bert Phillips, W. Herbert Dunton, and Oscar E. Berninghaus. All of them classically-trained artists who sought an entirely new way of painting.
Oscar E. Berninghaus (1874-1952) - Lower Ranchito, oil on board, 20 x 24 in.
Eanger Irving Couse - The Treaty, oil on board, 12 x 16 in.
Eventually, the group added E. Martin Hennings, Walter Ufer, Victor Higgins, Julius Rolshoven, Kenneth Adams, and Catherine Critcher, bringing the total number of members to 12.
Together, the group was able to forge more success than they could have individually. They marketed themselves and the mystical land and peoples of the Southwest; their paintings providing an exclusive window into an unknown world.
E. Martin Hennings (1886-1956) - Landscape, oil on board, 14 ½ x 14 in.
Though the group disbanded in 1927, the Taos Society of Artists forever shaped the mythos of the Southwest. They also, in their individual pursuits of fresh perspective, developed a uniquely American artistic philosophy and mode of painting.
W. Herbert Dunton (1878-1936)- Taos Indian Girl, Ed. of 100, lithograph, 16 x 11 in.
Walter Ufer (1876-1936) - Portrait of a Man, oil on canvas, 17 ½ x 14 ¾ in.
The six founding members of the TAOs society of artists at a party
(From Left: Ernest blumenschien, joseph sharp, Bert Phillips, Oscar Berninghaus, w. herbert dunton, and e. Irving Couse)
These pieces are currently available at Nedra Matteucci Galleries in Santa Fe. For pricing or more information, please call the Gallery at (505) 982-4631 or email inquiry@matteucci.com
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