Lot 21
Oscar Edmund Berninghaus(1874-1952)Sagebrush in December (The Rabbit Hunt, Taos Valley) 20 x 24in framed 30 x 34in
26 February 2021, 13:00 PST
Los AngelesSold for US$40,312.50 inc. premium
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Aaron Bastian
Director
Kathy Wong
Senior Director, Fine Art
Oscar Edmund Berninghaus (1874-1952)
Sagebrush in December (The Rabbit Hunt, Taos Valley)
signed and dated 'O.E. Berninghaus / -51-' (lower left), titled (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
20 x 24in
framed 30 x 34in
Painted in 1951.
signed and dated 'O.E. Berninghaus / -51-' (lower left), titled (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
20 x 24in
framed 30 x 34in
Painted in 1951.
Footnotes
Provenance
Goldfield Galleries, Los Angeles, California.
The Edward Goldfield Collection.
Biltmore Galleries, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Nedra Matteucci Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Private collection, New Mexico.
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 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. Seven years later he bought an old adobe house near Taos overlooking the town and in 1925 settled there permanently.
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 Indians in a realistic, un-romanticized way, going about their daily lives in New Mexico. As with his fellow Taos painters, he was interested in capturing an authentic look at the 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 moves the hare's hiding places to and fro in Sagebrush in December. The soft distant hills, like bent knees under a blanket, frame the scene. Berninghaus has a distinctive style of short, quick brush strokes, which give his work a unique texture. The palette captures that unique dry Southwest pastel coloring and one can almost sense the quiet of the moment as the figures slowly move across the plains in search of their prey.
