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Bert Greer Phillips

Bert Geer Phillips first became interested in visiting Taos, New Mexico in 1895 when he met Joseph Sharp in Paris. Phillips was a student at the Academie Julian with Ernest Blumenschein at the time and Sharp told them about the great potential he felt Taos held as a destination for young artists. Upon their return to the United States, Phillips and Blumenschein decided to go to New Mexico together to investigate Sharp's claims about the area. After an arduous journey through the relatively untravelled New Mexican terrain, they arrived in Taos in the summer of 1898. Phillips was immediately captivated by the town and decided to settle there permanently. Phillips' arrival in Taos marked the beginning of the Taos art colony which would develop to include the Taos Society of Artists. Phillips was a founding member of the Society and devoted his life to painting idyllic images of the Pueblo Indians and noble and romantic figures.

In many ways, Taos was the ideal place for Phillips to settle. As a child the artist had idolized Kit Carson, the early adventurer renowned for the expeditions he led into uncharted territories. Carson had maintained his headquarters in Taos and was buried there upon his death. Phillips was dedicated to preserving the Pueblo community and was instrumental in helping the Indians retain their rights to much of the forest and mountain land surrounding the Pueblo. He helped found the Taos Forest Preserve and even served as the first park ranger in the area, which was renamed Kit Carson National Forest at his request.

The Pueblo Indians were a peaceful, agricultural tribe who only hunted to supplement their supply of crops. Phillips understood the Indian's relationship to their natural surroundings and their appreciation of their entire natural habitat could provide. The artist wrote of the Indians' relationship to nature, "It is not the passive appreciation that is the frequent reaction to beauty of many white people. It is an integral part of their being. Their religion revolves around the rhythm and life of nature. Their love of beauty is born of knowledge as well as of what we call superstition .... Their whole life is keyed to the rhythm of nature" (as quoted in Patricia Janis Broder, Taos: A Painter's Dream, Boston, Massachusetts, 1980, p. 103).

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton

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