Editing Bert Geer Phillips

{{Short description|American painter}}
{{redirect|Bert Phillips}}
{{use mdy dates|date=March 2015}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Bert Geer Phillips
| image         = Bert Phillips portrait.jpg
| image_size    = 200px
| caption       =
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{birth date |1868|7|15|}}
| birth_place   = [[Hudson, New York]]
| death_date    = {{death date |1956|6|16|}}
| death_place   = [[San Diego, California]]
| nationality   = [[United States|American]]
| known_for     = [[Painting]]
| training      = [[Art Students League of New York]]<br/>[[National Academy of Design]]<br/>[[Académie Julian]]
| movement      = [[Taos Society of Artists]]
| notable_works =
| patrons       =
| awards        = 
}}
'''Bert Geer Phillips''' (July 15, 1868 – June 16, 1956) was an American artist and a founding member of the [[Taos Society of Artists]]. He settled in what was then [[Taos, New Mexico|Taos]], [[New Mexico Territory]] (1898) and was a founder of the [[Taos art colony]].<ref name=Koshare/> He is known for his paintings of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], [[New Mexico]], and the [[Southwestern United States|American Southwest]]. He was also a benefactor of the [[Western (genre)|Western]] artist [[Harold Dow Bugbee]], who became [[curator]] of the [[Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum]] in [[Canyon, Texas]] in 1951.

==Early life and education==
Phillips was born in [[Hudson, New York]] in 1868. During his childhood he was influenced by tales of the exploits of [[Frontier#United States|American frontiersman]] [[Kit Carson]] and other tales of [[American Old West|Western]] adventure involving [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]], such as those in [[James Fenimore Cooper]]'s ''[[Leatherstocking Tales]]''. In his recollections of childhood, he noted that he could always be found with paintbrush in hand. He was one of the first to enroll when [[George McKinstry]] opened an art studio in Hudson.<ref name=Peters/>

Phillips left home at age sixteen, moving to [[New York City]] where he attended the [[Art Students League of New York]] and the [[National Academy of Design]]. In 1894 he traveled to Europe, briefly staying in [[London]] before moving to [[Paris]], where he studied at the [[Académie Julian]]. While at the Académie he became friends with [[Ernest Blumenschein]] and [[Joseph Henry Sharp]].<ref name=Peters/>

==Artistic career==
[[File:Blumenschein and Philips Broken Wagon.jpg|thumb|right|The accident that started the Taos art colony, 1898.]]
Phillips returned to New York in 1896, where together with [[Ernest Blumenschein]] he leased a studio. In the Spring of 1898, Phillips accompanied Blumenschein on a 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]].<ref name=Peters/>

In northern [[New Mexico]], one of their [[covered wagon|wagon wheels]] broke due to the roughness of the terrain. Blumenschein rode out on horseback to nearby [[Taos, New Mexico]] to have the wheel repaired, while Phillips waited with the wagon. After Blumenschein returned with the repaired wheel three days later, they continued on to Taos, where they sold their horse and equipage, set up a studio, and began to paint.<ref name=Peters/>

Phillips decided to stay in Taos when Blumenschein returned to New York a few months later. He and a friend caused a skirmish during a religious ceremony on [[Taos Plaza]] when they refused to remove their hats; during the skirmish the [[Sheriffs in the United States|sheriff]] was killed. The incident increased tensions between the town's Hispanic and Anglo residents.<ref name=Peters/> Phillips wrote in a letter to Blumenschein, "I began to feel as if this was the real 'border life', and only wish old [[Kit Carson]] was here with us."<ref>Phillips quoted in Schimmel (1994), p. 65.</ref>

Phillips married Rose Martin, the sister of the famous local doctor [[Thomas "Doc" Martin]],<ref name="Taos Unlimited"/> in 1899. He conceived the idea of starting an [[art colony]] in Taos, which he discussed in correspondence with Blumenschein. In 1915, his dream became reality with the formation of the [[Taos Society of Artists]], of which Phillips was a founding member together with his friends [[Ernest Blumenschein]], [[Joseph Henry Sharp]], and three other artists.<ref name=Peters/> The Society was founded in the dining room of Phillips' in-laws, Doc and Helen Martin, who was herself a batik artist.<ref name="Taos Unlimited"/> In addition to being instrumental in the formation of the Society, Phillips also spent more years in Taos than any other member.<ref name=Peters/>

==Conservationism==
Phillips was instrumental in the 1906 establishment of the [[Taos National Forest]]. He later became its first forest ranger when he needed to rest his eyesight.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Rodriguez|first1=Sylvia|title=Art, Tourism, and Race Relations in Taos: Toward a Sociology of the Art Colony|journal=Journal of Anthropological Research|date=Spring 1989|volume=45|issue=1|page=88|doi=10.1086/jar.45.1.3630172|jstor=3630172|s2cid=146972249}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Oscar E. Berninghaus]]
* [[E. Irving Couse]]
* [[W. Herbert Dunton]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=Peters>{{cite book |editor=Peters, Gerald III |title=The Taos Society of Artist: Masters and Masterpieces |publisher=Gerald Peters Gallery |year=1998 |isbn=0-935037-78-0}}</ref>
<ref name="Taos Unlimited">{{cite web |work=Taos Unlimited |url=http://colony-t.nm-unlimited.net/ |title=Taos as an Art Colony: From the Taos Society of Artists to the Present |access-date=August 8, 2010}}</ref>
<ref name=Koshare>{{cite web|url=http://www.kosharehistory.org/museum/phillips.html |publisher=Koshare Indian Museum |title=Bert Geer Phillips (1868-1956) |work=KoshareHistory.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101103084801/http://kosharehistory.org/museum/phillips.html |archive-date=November 3, 2010 |df=mdy }}</ref>
}}

==References==
* {{cite book |last1=Schimmel |first1=Julie |last2=White |first2=Robert R. |title=Bert Geer Phillips and the Taos Art Colony |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |edition=1st |year=1994 |isbn=0-8263-1444-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bertgeerphillips00schi }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite news |last1=Whaley |first1=Bill |last2=Stiny |first2=Andy |url=http://www.taosdaily.com/index.php?fuseaction=home.viewarticle&article_id=2789 |title=Reconsidering Art in Taos; Bert Phillips |work=Taos Horse Fly |date=February 17, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310092234/http://www.taosdaily.com/index.php?fuseaction=home.viewarticle&article_id=2789 |archive-date=March 10, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Bert Geer Phillips}}
*[http://www.bertphillips.com/ Taos Painters: Bert Geer Phillips (1868-1956)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20101103084801/http://kosharehistory.org/museum/phillips.html Koshare Indian Museum: Bert Geer Phillips (1868-1956)]
*[http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=2949 AskArt: Bert Geer Phillips (1868 - 1956)]

;Paintings
*''[http://www.ou.edu/artcollections/collections/american/phillips_indianfishing.html Indian Fishing]''
*''[http://www.ou.edu/artcollections/collections/american/phillips_scout.html Nar-Ah-Kig-Gee-Ah Tzur]'' (Kit Carson's Apache Scout)
*''[http://www.ou.edu/artcollections/collections/american/phillips_wildplum.html Wild Plum Blossoms and Taos Mountain]''
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024112/http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/objects/asitem/People$00403400/0?t:state:flow=a6e70fc7-a80f-4bce-89bb-7ccc54ddc249  Our Washerwoman's Family - New Mexico] ''(c 1918)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Bert Geer}}
[[Category:1868 births]]
[[Category:1956 deaths]]
[[Category:Académie Julian alumni]]
[[Category:19th-century American painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]
[[Category:20th-century American painters]]
[[Category:Art Students League of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Artists from Taos, New Mexico]]
[[Category:Artists of the American West]]
[[Category:People from Hudson, New York]]
[[Category:Taos Society of Artists]]
[[Category:19th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:20th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:People from New Mexico Territory]]