Oscar Edmund Berninghaus - (1874 - 1952) Was an American western artist born in St. Louis in Missouri and from the time of his youth, Berninghaus was fascinated with the American Old West from tales he heard from trappers and cowboys passing through St Louis. Berninghaus began work in lithography in 1889 and was a painters apprentice in1893 while studying at the St. Louis Society of Fine Arts. Berninghaus was an established commercial artist before he visited Taos New Mexico in 1899. He was captivated by the local Indian culture and the landscape and light of the area, and returned to Taos nearly every subsequent summer. These visits grew longer, soon turning into six-month retreats. In 1915, he became a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, along with his friend Bert Phillips and four other artists. Berninghaus painted many Indian subjects, giving them the full Taos treatment, but also created works in which horses and humans were reduced to inconspicuous elements in the spectacular mountainous landscape that lured painters to northern New Mexico.