Oscar Edmund Berninghaus

American/St. Louis (1874-1952)

Born in St. Louis, Missouri at a time when the city was considered the "Gateway to the West," Berninghaus developed an early interest in art through his father's lithography company.  He took three evening terms at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, which was the extent of his formal training. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad gave Berninghaus a commission in 1899 to paint the mountain scenery, mining camps, people, and villages of Colorado and New Mexico.  This opportunity introduced him to the small town of Taos where he met fellow artists

Bert Phillips, Ernest Blumenschein. Joseph Sharp, Eanger Irving Couse, and W. Herbert Dunton.  This group of six  later created the Taos Society of Artists.

Berninghaus continued to take commissions throughout his career, including advertising illustrations for Anheuser-Busch, a mural for the Missouri State Capitol building in Jefferson City and creating float design for the Veiled Prophet Parade.  He divided his time between Taos in the summers and his home in St. Louis until 1925 when he moved permanently to New Mexico.  Berninghaus was best known for his paintings of horses and Native Americans.  He painted the people of Taos in natural settings revealing an understanding of their life in a new age.  Art historian Patricia Broder captured his breadth when she wrote of him, "He was at once a romantic and realist, poet and naturalist."  His artistic legacy helped to visualize America's epic history.

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