Oscar Edmund Berninghaus

1874-1952

American Artist

Oscar E. Berninghaus, born on October 2, 1874, displayed his inclination for art at an early age. At the age of 16 “Bern” as he was called, quit school to work for a lithography company. His job provided him with the technical knowledge of printing, lithography, color separation, poster art and engraving. In order to refine his skills, Bern later attended night classes at the School of Fine Arts in St. Louis. In 1899 Berninghaus received an important commission that would change the direction of his art forever. The Denver and Rio Grand Railroad hired him to come west to sketch and produce watercolors of the mountain scenery, people and villages in order to attract Easterners to their part of the country. It was during this journey that Berninghaus encountered the magic of Taos for the first time.Berninghaus continued to return to Taos almost every summer for the next twenty-five years. Berninghaus was beginning to realize that for him the Indians of Taos Pueblo were great subjects. In the summer of 1915 the famous Taos Society of Artists was officially organized. Berninghaus was one of the founding members.In 1925, Oscar Berninghaus moved permanently to New Mexico. Berninghaus continued to paint in Taos until the time of his death. For most of the years he painted models from life and landscapes from nature. In later years, however, his repertoire of stored images was so large that he was able to paint from memory as accurately as he used to from sketching. Oscar Berninghaus died at the age of 77 on April 27, 1952, three days after suffering a heart attack.