Oscar Edmund Berninghaus, (1874-1952)

Gathering For the Rabbit Hunt 30 x 34in framed 37 1/2 x 41in

Gathering For the Rabbit Hunt
signed, inscribed and dated 'O.E. Berninghaus / Taos -N.M.- 27.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
30 x 34in
framed 37 1/2 x 41in
Painted in 1927.

Provenance
William A. Karges Fine Art, Los Angeles, California.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Exhibited
Provo, Brigham Young University, Visions of the Southwest from the Diane and Sam Stewart Art Collection, February 11, 2009 - July 3, 2009.
Salt Lake City, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Bierstadt to Warhol: American Indians in the West, February 15 – August 11, 2013.

Literature
"Photo Gallery: American Indian Exhibit Begins at Utah Museum of Fine Arts," Deseret News, February 14, 2013, online version, https://www.deseret.com/2013/2/14/20514384/photo-gallery-american-indian-exhibit-begins-at-utah-museum-of-fine-arts, illustrated.

Oscar Berninghaus was born in St. Louis and developed an interest in art through his family's lithography business. In 1898, while on an illustration assignment for McClure's magazine, he made the first of what was to become many trips to New Mexico and Arizona. Berninghaus heard of the magnificence of Taos through fellow artist Bert Geer Phillips. This 1898 visit inaugurated a tradition of spending winter months in St. Louis and summers in Taos. He remained active in both locations for many years.

Berninghaus became a sketch artist for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, employed to depict the landscape of Colorado and New Mexico. In 1912, he joined the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists. There were no galleries in Taos at the time, so the Taos Society of Artists formed to promote the sale of paintings by its members through traveling exhibitions. The Society was an instant success. The shows traveled to all the major art cities in America and received enormous publicity throughout the country. Railroad companies such as the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe bought their paintings, in part to promote travel and the beauty of the West. Seeing a solid future ahead in selling his paintings, Berninghaus settled permanently in Taos by 1925.

One of the reasons he was committed to the Taos Art Colony was that he believed it was "a distinctly American art, something definitive of subject matter and unique to this country". He depicted the local New Mexican Native American peoples in a realistic, un-romanticized way, going about their daily lives. As with his fellow Taos painters, he was interested in capturing an authentic look at what was perceived at the time to be a vanishing Indian culture. A contemporary of the artist and colorful local, Rebecca James, said of Berninghaus' work, it 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."

Rabbit hunting was a common scene in the Taos region. The open plains, filled with endless sagebrush, housed a large population of jackrabbits and cottontail rabbits. The locals frequently rode the plains in search of this valuable food source. Berninghaus came back to this subject on several occasions. For those fortunate enough to visit these high plains, it's easy to imagine the pungent smell of the sage as the breeze quietly carries the puffy clouds across the landscape. In Gathering For the Rabbit Hunt we see a group of riders, perhaps discussing their strategy for seeking out the evening's dinner. The shadows blanketing the distant hills give depth to the composition. The colors are deep and saturated, suggesting that perhaps an afternoon rain shower is on the way.

Noted art scholar and author Van Deren Coke once wrote of Berninghaus, "There is much to ponder and study in the technical mastery behind this man's seemingly straightforward and easily grasped subject matter. How an artist uses his formal facility to reach various levels of meaning often is misunderstood and overlooked. The simple and clear part of Berninghaus' art also conceals a true psychological understanding of his major subject, the Pueblo Indians."