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Ernest Martin Hennings

E. Martin Hennings joined the Taos Society of Artists in 1924, becoming one of the last full members to join the Society before they voted to disband in 1927. Hennings knew from an early age that he wanted to be a painter and he was encouraged in this career by his family. In 1968 his daughter Helen Hennings Winton recalled, "I can remember from my own very early childhood hearing the story of Dad's visit to the Art Institute [of Chicago] when he was about thirteen. So awed and impressed was he by what he saw there that he decided then that he would make art his life's work" (Nelson, p. 100).

Hennings received his formal training at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Royal Academy in Munich. He renewed his friendship with fellow Chicago natives Victor Higgins and Walter Ufer while studying in Munich and the three would eventually work together in Taos. Julie Schimmel writes, "The resultant Munich style was characterized by a direct and spontaneous reaction to a subject, with no preliminary drawing, fluid brushwork, and rich paint surfaceshallmarks conveying immediate contact with the physical world" (Charles C. Eldredge, Julie Schimmel and William H. Truettner, Art in New Mexico, 19001945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe, New York, 1986, p. 49).

Carter H. Harrison, Jr., the mayor of Chicago, and Oscar Mayer, the meat packing magnate, offered to sponsor Hennings' work in Taos for a year in 1917. The artist accepted their offer, following in the footsteps of his friends Higgins and Ufer who had both previously been sponsored by Harrison. Though Hennings continued to maintain a studio in Chicago until the Depression, the artistic inspiration he found among the Pueblo Indians led him to make Taos his permanent home in 1921. Patricia Janis Broder writes of Hennings' depictions of the Taos Indians, "He portrayed them as introspective, dignified individuals, regal in demeanor and bearing, with a suggestion of stoicism and sadness as they faced an uncertain future.

He often chose as his subject groups of blanketed Indians passing through the woods on horseback. These lines of riders suggest the eternal procession of life in New Mexicoa procession in which Taos Indians have participated for centuries" (Patricia Janis Broder, Taos: A Painter's Dream, Boston, Massachusetts, 1980, p. 253). She continues, "He frequently used the convention of blocking the distance with a screen composed of tree trunks, branches and leaves, thus negating the illusion of distance and depth and emphasizing the two-dimensional quality of the canvas. He often included sharply outlined foreground figures, their silhouettes abruptly cut off by the edge of the paintings. This artistic device evokes a sense of immediacy and emphasizes the power inherent in the subject. These decorative compositions greatly resemble brightly woven tapestries. Portrait and landscape are fused into a harmonious whole that proclaims the beauty and vitality of life in Taos" (Broder, p. 256).

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

Ernest Hennings, born in 1886, studied for five years at the Art Institute of Chicago and also at the Munich Royal Academy. He returned to Chicago after his studies in Germany at the outbreak of WWI. Hennings became a muralist and commercial artist and was sent by his patron, Charles Harrison, to Taos in 1921. Hennings then became known for is portrayal of American Indians. Hennings was considered a classicist, blending academic style with decorative line of Art Noveau. He was quite successful in unifying the human figure with a natural setting. To give the illusion of sunshine and outdoor atmosphere, Henning applied the oil pain thinly in sheer layering strokes and allowed it to dry for long periods before varnishing. Hennings was commissioned by the Santa Fe Railroad to complete a series at the Navajo Reservation and died soon after in 1956. These paintings were later used for calendars.

Biography courtesy of The Caldwell Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/caldwell

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