Ernest L. Blumenschein | |
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Haystack, Taos Valley, before 1927.
Oil on canvas. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma |
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Born |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
May 26, 1874
Died | June 6, 1960 Albuquerque, New Mexico |
(aged 86)
Nationality | American |
Education |
Art Students League of New York Académie Julian |
Known for | Painting |
Movement | Taos Society of Artists |
Spouse(s) | Mary Greene |
Ernest Leonard Blumenschein (May 26, 1874 – June 6, 1960) was an American artist and founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. He is noted for paintings of Native Americans, New Mexico and the American Southwest.
Ernest Blumenschein was born on May 26, 1874 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When four years later his mother died, his father accepted a position as director of the Dayton Philharmonic in Ohio, where Blumenschein grew up. When he finished high school, Blumenschein received a scholarship to study violin at the Cincinnati College of Music.
While in Cincinnati, he also attended an illustration course from Fernand Lungren at the Cincinnati Art Academy, causing him to change his studies from music to art. He moved to New York City in 1892, studying at the Art Students League of New York. Attracted by the idea of studying art in Europe, he enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1894. There he met and became friends with Bert Phillips and the older and more experienced artist Joseph Henry Sharp, who told the two younger artists about his 1893 visit to Taos, New Mexico.
Blumenschein returned to New York in 1896, to work as an illustrator in a studio shared with Bert Phillips. In early 1898, he took an assignment that required him to travel to Arizona and New Mexico. That Spring, he convinced Phillips to join him on a second journey to the American West. Their first stop was Denver, Colorado, where they bought art and camping supplies, a wagon, horses and a revolver. Thus equipped, they set out with the intention of reaching Mexico.