"A Street in Taos" Oil on canvas laid to canvas Signed and inscribed lower right: O.E. Berninghaus / "Taos", titled on the stretcher remnant 22.5" H x 28" W Provenance: Sale: Sotheby's New York, May, 25, 1988, Lot 107 Private Collection, Santa Barbara, California Notes: Born in Saint Louis Missouri in 1874, Oscar Berninghaus was trained from childhood in his family's lithography business. As a young boy, he employed his precocious talent for the medium by establishing his own business selling his works to tourists and local newspapers. By sixteen, he was already working professionally, honing his technical skills at a local print house. Three years later, Berninghaus joined Woodward & Tiernan, the nations's foremost printing company. During this period, he also sought new technical skills and artistic training, enrolling in night classes at Washington University School of Fine Art. Showing in his first solo exhibition at 25, Oscar garnered attention from the Rio Grande Railroad and McClures magazine. He was commissioned to draw and paint the Southwest, riding the train through the region. Berninghaus was drawn to New Mexico's landscape and made an unplanned stop along the train route, spending a life-changing week in Taos. He met fellow artist Bert Geer Phillips and the pair would go on to become lifelong friends and founding members of the Taos Society of Artists. During this period, Harper's Weekly would hail that "although a young man, [Berninghaus], has gained the reputation as a painter of the American Indians. He ranks among the foremost of Indian painters in the country."1 In 1904 Berninghaus had two works selected to be a part of the St. Louis World's Fair. This exposure led him to become one of St. Louis's most notable artists. Joining the St. Louis Artists' Guild, the Society of Western Artists, and the Salmagundi Club, his contributions were unmatched. The Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum commented that "Berninghaus' long-standing reputation and popularity will make him as hard to ignore in the future as in the past… [with] his great professionalism, dedication to art, sure skill and expertise with pen and brush… [and] the continuity of meaning in his art from the past to the present."2 For 25 years, beginning in 1900, the artist took leave from his illustration job and family in St. Louis to travel to Taos every summer. He spent days at a time working on accurately portraying the color palette and texture of his beloved home-away-from-home. "A Street in Taos" offers a sweeping, atmospheric landscape, capturing an authentic portrayal of the modernizing daily life of the Taos Indians. The scene features a group of figures, a covered wagon, and a steer. In the background are adobe structures that are gently shadowed by full, white clouds. The daily life of Pueblo Indians was a subject the artist spent years observing and detailing in his sketches. Later in his life, Berninghaus would be able to paint these scenes and figures from memory: "As an artist, he was fascinated with the way the sun and sky along with the mountains and buildings seem to blend harmoniously. Even the Indians appeared to be made of the same pigments as their Pueblo, their horses, their field[s]."3 In 1925, he decided to move to Taos, remaining there with his family until his death in 1952. The pillars to his success would be his unfettered access to the native community, his deep respect for their way of life, and his raw and nurtured talent that he applied to the lifelong study of the Pueblo Indians and New Mexico landscape. "Here indeed was an almost unspoiled wilderness that stirred something deep inside his being." 1 G.E. Sanders, Oscar Berninghaus, Taos, New Mexico, Master Painter of American Indians and the Frontier West,, Taos Heritage Publishing Company, 1985, p. 14. 2 Ibid., p. IX. 3 Ibid., p. 10.