Oscar E. Berninghaus

Oscar Edmund Berninghaus (October 2, 1874 – April 27, 1952) was an American artist, a co-founder of the Society of Ozark Painters, and a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. He is best known for his paintings of Native Americans, New Mexico and the American Southwest. His son, Charles Berninghaus (1905–1988), was also a Taos artist.

Early life and education Berninghaus was born on October 2, 1874, in St. Louis, Missouri. His father ran a lithography business, which stimulated an interest in watercolor painting in Oscar. The young artist regularly sketched local scenes around St. Louis, including the St. Louis riverfront. He developed an interest in business and sold his works to tourists and newspapers. At sixteen, he had quit school and taken a job with Compton & Sons, a local lithography company, where he started as an errand boy, but soon learned the technical details of engraving, color separation and printmaking. In 1893, he left Compton & Sons and joined Woodward and Tiernan, one of the largest printing concerns in the world at the time.

In search of something more than the practical experience he was receiving at the lithography companies, Berninghaus attended night classes at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and sketched and painted in his spare time. and worked teaching illustration at the School of Fine Arts. He was offered a commission by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad to produce promotional sketches of the Colorado and New Mexico landscapes and soon traveled West. After spending a day in Denver, he traveled south to Antonito, Colorado, on a standard gauge railroad before transition to a narrow gauge track for the remainder of his trip into New Mexico. All the while, Berninghaus sketched, and was eventually invited by the conductor to ride on the top of the train car.

When he passed nearby Taos, New Mexico, he disembarked the train and travelled overland. During his 8-day stay, he met and befriended Bert Phillips, who had established himself as a painter in Taos the previous year. (Santa Fe, New Mexico) St. Louis Art Museum Colby College Museum of Art (Waterville, ME) Gilcrease Museum (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Stark Museum of Art (Orange, Texas) Nelson-Atkins Museum; Wichita Art Museum Blanton Museum of Art, Austin Museum of Western Art, [Kerrville, Texas]

Murals Berninghaus's murals adorn the walls of: