Young West Show opens Friday, May 16, 5 to 8PM
OE Berninghaus Paintings
Berninghaus paintings can be viewed in person at Parsons Galleries, within easy walking distance
in Downtown Historic Taos. Parsons invites you to visit.
"The body of (Berninghaus') work is a magnificent document of the Southwest,
painted as no one else has put down in this country.
It is suffused with tenderness, is straight and tough as a pine tree, strong as a verb," said fellow Taos artist Rebecca James.
Click Here for more Oscar E Berninghaus Paintings and Biography
Click any OE Berninghaus paintings for larger art works
Oscar E Berninghaus (1874-1952)
Art Biography:
written by Robert Parsons
and Ashley Rolshoven
Berninghaus explains Taos
I "became infected with the Taos germ and promised myself a longer stay…"
Berninghaus said about Taos, "I stayed here but a week, became infected with the Taos germ and promised myself a longer stay…" "We have had French, Dutch, Italian and German art. Now we have American art. I feel that from Taos will come that art."
He explained, "I boarded a narrow gauge freight train, affectionally known as the Chile Line, bound for Santa Fe, New Mexico. That was in 1899. For reasons unknown to me the little train would stop every few miles, perhaps to cool down the axle, take in fuel and water or remove some fallen boulder from the mountainside. Anyway, whatever it was, this gave the pleasant opportunity to make sketches of such objects as sagebrush, pinion trees and rock formations. The train crew, taking interest in me and what I was doing, suggested i might ride the top of the freight car that I may better see the country as we roll along. It was a beautiful bright sunny day in May. The warmth of the sun was warmth to the soul and body in this high altitude of Northern New Mexico. The sun casting its glowing color over the hills, that gave the Sangre de Christo mountains their name. I found Taos just as beautiful as the brakeman had described it. And more so."
Oscar E Berninghaus, a founder of the Taos Society of Artists, first visited in 1899.
Settling permanently for 27 years, he was one of the very few ever allowed into the Native American Kivas and religious ceremonies.
Fellow Taos artist Rebecca James said, "The body of his work is a magnificent document of the Southwest,
painted as no one else has put down in this country.
It is suffused with tenderness, is straight and tough as a pine tree, strong as a verb."
Berninghaus said: "The painter must first see his picture as paint-as color-as form-and not as a landscape or a figure.
He must see with his inner eye, then paint with feeling, not with seeing."
Oscar E Berninghaus Timeline
Oscar E Berninghaus was born in St. Louis, MO, on Oct. 2, 1874.
He studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Art.
He attended the St. Louis grammar schools and sold sketches to newspapers as a youth.
He also created sketches of the river front in St. Luis, which he sold to tourists and newspapers.
In 1889, at the age of 16 he quit school and instead went to work for Compton & Sons, a lithography company.
In 1893, he started working for Woodward and Tiernan, one of the worlds largest printing companies.
He took night classes in the Art Department of the School of Fine Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
In 1899, at the age of 25, he had his first one man exhibition at the Frank D. Healy Galleries in St. Louis.
In 1899, he was hired by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad to create a series of pieces of travel literature about New Mexico and Colorado.
About his first visit to Taos, he said, "I stayed here but a week, became infected with the Taos germ and promised myself a longer stay…"
In 1900 he spent the first of many summers in Taos, New Mexico.
He was one of the very few ever to gain admittance to the sacred kivas of the Taos Pueblo Indians.
In 1900, Berninghaus had his first on man show.
By 1905 his work was highly honored by the newspapers of New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
In 1912, he became associated with the founders of the Taos Society of Artists.
By 1913, Berninghaus was working half of each year in New Mexico
In 1915 he became one of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists.
In 1919 OE Berninghaus bought an old adobe house on the Loma overlooking the town Taos.
In 1925 he made his Taos residency permanent, allowing him to experience all four seasons in Taos.
In 1931 he painted in the surrounding states, including a mural of the opening of the west for the Post Office in Phoenix, Arizona.
Altogether he created 23 murals for the Federal Works Agency, including a large 8' x 20' mural, called "Border Gateways", in the federal courtroom in the Post Office Building in Ft. Scott in 1937.
Oscar Berninghaus died in Taos, New Mexico on April 27, 1952, at the age of 77, three days after a heart attack.
Berninghaus Signature Examples
Authentic signatures are only a part of certifying Traditional Fine Art.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
Berninghaus Highest Auction Prices
"THE PUEBLOS AWAIT THE DANCERS" Price: $1,471,000
"Indian Farmer" Price: $690,000
"Indian Farmer" Price: $690,000
"A CORNER IN THE TAOS PLAZA" Price: $541,000
"Short Cut" Price: $431,250
"Taos Field of Workers (1950)" Price: $400,000
"Autumn Days" Price: $365,500
"Autumn Bounty" Price: $325,000
"Indians on Horseback" Price: $324,000
"Tracks on the Trail" Price: $284,500
"Cottonwoods in the Fall, Glorietta Grove" Price: $280,000
"Aspen Forest on Taos Pass" Price: $262,400
"Tracks on the Trail" Price: $284,500
"Cottonwoods in the Fall, Glorietta Grove" Price: $280,000
"Aspen Forest on Taos Pass" Price: $262,400
Oscar E Berninghaus' Art prices have risen steadily. Please contact the Gallery for the latest prices and current inventory.
Inventory changes daily.
Parsons does not offer Oscar E Berninghaus reproductions, because no reproduction can compare to the real paintings.
Parsons invites you to visit the Galleries to experience the unmatched beauty of the real art.
Oscar E Berninghaus Art Media:
Colored Pencils
Fresco
Gouache
Oil Paints
Pastels
Pens and Inks
Temperas
Watercolors
OE Berninghaus Museum Collections:
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Anschutz
Arizona State University Art Museum
Butler Institute of American Art
City Art Museum St. Louis
C.M. Russell Museum
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
Desert Caballeros Western Museum
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians-Western Art
Figge Art Museum/Davenport Art Museum
Gilcrease Museum
Jack S Blanton Museum of Art
Jonson Gallery of University of New Mexico
Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri-Columbia
Museum of The Southwest
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
National Museum of American Art-Smithsonian
New Mexico Museum of Art
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Phoenix Art Museum
Philbrook Art Center
Rockwell Museum of Western Art
San Diego Museum of Art
Sangre De Cristo Arts Center
Stark Museum of Art
St. Louis Mercantile Library At The University Of Missouri - St. Louis
The Arizona Historical Society, Southern Arizona Division
The Arkansas Arts Center
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
The Harwood Museum of Art
The Philbrook Museum of Art
The Sid Richardson Collection Of Western Art
Thyssen-Bonemisza Collection
Tucson Museum of Art
University of Wyoming Art Museum
Woolaroc Museum
Oscar E Berninghaus Exhibitions:
Art Institute of Chicago
Charles Russell Art Show
Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC
Edgar B Davis Competition, Texas
National Academy of Design
Panama Pacific Exhibition of 1915
Society of Western Artists
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Important Berninghaus Paintings:
"Old Faithful, Yellowstone" (1914)
"Autumn Days" (1924)
"Their Son" (1924)
"Border Gateways" (1937)
"Watching the Ballgame"
"Pitching Hay"
"Storm Clouds"
"The Irrigation Ditch"
"Moonlight"
"John Dunn, Taos Stage Coach"
"Ranchos Hacienda"
"Trail to the Mountains"
"Autumn Days" (1924)
"Making Camp" ca.1930
"Dance at the Pueblo"
"Return to the Pueblo" (1917)
"Stagecoach"
"Indian on Horseback"
"The Relief Train"
"A Fight For The Overland Mail"
"Overland Mail Coach"
"The Faithful Ponies"
"Haytime and Showers"
"Friendly Indians Watching A Wagon Train"
"Westward Ho!"
"Attack on an Emigrant Train"
"Fight for the Overland Mail"
"In the Village of Lavacita, NM" Oil on Canvas Board, c. 1920, 16" x 20"
"Pitching Hay" Oil on Board, c. 1930, 10" x 12"
"The Green Leaves of Summer" Oil on Canvas, 20" x 16"
"Taos Pueblo and Indian" Oil on Panel, CIrca 1914, 8" x 12"
"Indian at Fireplace" Watercolor, CIrca 1900, 9" x 4"
"Around Taos" Oil on Board, 9" x 12"
"Taos Adobe Home" Oil on Panel, CIrca 1914, 8" x 12"
"Taos Mountain Riders" Oil on Panel, Circa 1930, 12" x 16"
"Church at Ranchos de Taos" 1920, oil on canvas, 28" x 28"
Murals:
"Border Gateways"
"Communication During the Period of Exploration"
"Pioneer Communication"
"Exploration"
"Surrender of the Miamis to General Henry Dodge 1814"
OE Berninghaus Awards and Memberships:
1924 Ranger Fund Prize
The 1926 Second Altman Prize from the National Academy of Design.
National Academy of Design, Elected Member
National Society of Mural Painters
Salmagundi Club, New York City
Society of Western Artists
Taos Society of Artists
OE Berninghaus Paintings and Murals On Line:
(Click on links below to view art works)
"The Rabbit Hunter" circa 1945
"Spring Plowing" 1937 oil on canvas, 34 x 40 in.
"Making Camp" ca.1930 watercolor 10 1/4 x 14 1/4 in.
"Wood Haulers" n.d. woodcut 6 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.
"Surrender of the Miamis to General Henry Dodge 1814" mural (c1920)
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