Editing Ernest L. Blumenschein

{{Short description|American painter (1874–1960)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=March 2015}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Ernest L. Blumenschein
| image         = Blumenschein Haystack Taos Valley.jpg
| image_size    = 300px
| caption       = ''Haystack, Taos Valley'', before 1927.<br>Oil on canvas. Museum of Art, [[University of Oklahoma]]
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{birth date |1874|5|26}}
| birth_place   = [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age |1960|6|6|1874|5|26}}
| death_place   = [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]]
| nationality   = American
| known_for     = [[Painting]]
| training      = [[Art Students League of New York]]<br/>[[Académie Julian]]
| movement      = [[Taos Society of Artists]]
| spouse        = [[Mary Sheppard Greene|Mary Greene]]
| notable_works =
| patrons       =
| awards        = 
}}

'''Ernest Leonard Blumenschein''' (May 26, 1874  – June 6, 1960) was an American artist and founding member of the [[Taos Society of Artists]]. He is noted for paintings of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], [[New Mexico]] and the [[Southwestern United States|American Southwest]].

==Early life and education==
Ernest Blumenschein was born on May 26, 1874, in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania, near fellow German immigrant<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Larson |first1=Robert W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUUV3yFayhoC&dq=Ernest+L.+Blumenschein%3A+The+Life+of+an+American+Artist%2C+Ernest+Blumenschein+was+sufficiently+intrigued+by+the+possibility+of+Jewish+descent+in+his+family+to+remember+distinctly+in+a+January+1927+interview&pg=RA1-PA1857 |title=Ernest L. Blumenschein: The Life of an American Artist |last2=Larson |first2=Carole B. |date=2013-05-07 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-8901-7 |language=en}}</ref> families.<ref name=Peters/>  In 1877, his father accepted a position as director of the [[Dayton Philharmonic]] in Ohio, where Blumenschein grew up.  When he finished high school, Blumenschein received a scholarship to study violin at the [[College of Music of Cincinnati]].<ref name=Peters/><ref>Hassrick (2008), p. 16</ref>

While in [[Cincinnati, Ohio|Cincinnati]], he also attended an illustration course from [[Fernand Lungren]] at the [[Cincinnati Art Academy]], causing him to change his studies from music to art.  He moved to New York City in 1892, studying at the  [[Art Students League of New York]]. Attracted by the idea of studying art in Europe, he  enrolled at the [[Académie Julian]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=AVGp61XYpn0C&dq=Acad%C3%A9mie+Julian&pg=PT98 Lyn Bleiler,Society of the Muse of the Southwest''Taos'']</ref> in Paris in 1894. There he met and became friends with [[Bert Phillips]] and the older and more experienced artist [[Joseph Henry Sharp]], who told the two younger artists about his 1893 visit to [[Taos, New Mexico]].<ref name=Peters/>

==Career==
[[File:Blumenschein and Philips Broken Wagon.jpg|thumb|The accident that started the Taos art colony, 1898.]]
Blumenschein returned to New York in 1896, to work as an illustrator in a studio shared with [[Bert Phillips]]. In early 1898, he took an assignment that required him to travel to [[Arizona]] and [[New Mexico]]. That Spring, he convinced Phillips to join him on a second 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, the rough road caused a [[covered wagon|wagon wheel]] to break. Blumenschein brought the wheel to be repaired in nearby [[Taos, New Mexico|Taos]], leaving Phillips alone with the wagon. When Blumenschein returned three days later with the repaired wheel, they continued to Taos, where they sold their horse and equipage, set up a studio and began to paint.<ref name=Peters/>

Blumenschein stayed in Taos for three months, returning to New York to resume his career as an illustrator of popular magazines and books (including two short stories by [[Jack London]]),<ref>Hassrick (2008), p. 49</ref> while Phillips remained in Taos. Blumenschein returned twice to Paris to pursue further studies at [[Académie Julian]]: once in 1899 and again from 1902 to 1909. During the latter stay, he met and married artist [[Mary Shepard Greene]].<ref name=Peters/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.taoshistoricmuseums.org/el-blumenschein-home/ |title=E.L. Blumenschein Home |work=Taos Historic Museums |access-date=2014-08-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805014059/http://taoshistoricmuseums.org/El-Blumenschein-Home |archive-date=August 5, 2014 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

The couple returned to New York in 1909, where they worked as an illustration team. Blumenschein also took a teaching position at his alma mater, the [[Art Students League of New York]].

From 1910, he spent his summers in Taos. In 1915, he became a co-founder of the [[Taos Society of Artists]], together with his friends [[Bert Phillips]], [[Joseph Henry Sharp]], and three other artists. He finally settled permanently in Taos in 1919. From 1920 to 1921 he served as president of the Society. In 1923, he refused to accept the position of secretary of the Society, giving his commitment to an office of ''The New Mexico Painters'', another group he had helped form, as his reason for the refusal. The other members of the Society refused to accept his excuse, and after a heated argument, Blumenschein resigned from the Society.<ref name=Peters/>

The style of painting of the Taos painters was to decisively influence the perceptions that the wider world came to have of the American Southwest, specifically of the [[Puebloan peoples|Pueblo]] and [[Navajo Nation|Navajo]] Indian peoples.

During World War I, Blumenschein led a national effort to produce [[range-finder painting]]s used to help train military gunners.<ref name=hassrick/>

==Honors and awards==
In 1910, Blumenschein was elected into the [[National Academy of Design]] as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1927.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalacademy.org/academy/national-academicians/?na=B |title=National Academicians |work=NationalAcademy.org |publisher=National Academy |access-date=2014-08-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140806235825/http://www.nationalacademy.org/academy/national-academicians/?na=B |archive-date=August 6, 2014 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> In 1947 he was awarded an Honorary Master of Arts from [[University of New Mexico]] and the following year he was named Honorary Fellow in Fine Arts by the [[School of American Research]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Flynn|first1=Kathryn A.|title=Treasures on New Mexico Trails : Discover New Deal Art and Architecture|date=1995|publisher=Sunstone Press|location=Santa Fe, New Mexico|isbn=0865342369|page=207}}</ref>

==Collections==
[[File:Ernest and Mary Blumenschein 1910.jpg|thumb|upright|Ernest and [[Mary Shepard Greene|Mary Blumenschein]], New York, 1910.]]
Paintings by Blumenschein are held in the [[Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art]] in [[Indianapolis, Indiana]], the [[Harwood Museum of Art]] in Taos,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://harwoodmuseum.org/collections/taos-society |title=Taos Society of Artists |work=HarwoodMuseum.org |publisher=University of New Mexico |access-date=2014-08-12 |archive-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160120154348/http://harwoodmuseum.org/collections/taos-society |url-status=dead }}</ref> the [[Taos Art Museum]] and [[Nicolai Fechin House|Fechin House]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.taosartmuseum.org/about.html |title=Taos Art Museum |work=TaosArtMuseum.org |publisher=Taos Art Museum at Fechin House |access-date=2015-03-04 |archive-date=February 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219010451/http://www.taosartmuseum.org/about.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> the [[New Mexico Museum of Art]]  in [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/objects/asimages/People$0040344?t:state:flow=ade18cc2-21ea-4d5d-b029-d9c20775f0ed |title=Related for Ernest L. Blumenschein |work=Searchable Art Museum |publisher=New Mexico Museum of Art |access-date=2013-07-09}}</ref> and the [[El Paso Art Museum]] in [[El Paso, Texas]].

==See also==
* [[Ernest L. Blumenschein House]], his home in [[Taos, New Mexico]]
* [[Oscar E. Berninghaus]]
* [[E. Irving Couse]]
* [[W. Herbert Dunton]]
* [[E. Martin Hennings]]

==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=hassrick>Hassrick, Peter H., Elizabeth J. Cunningham, and Ernest Leonard Blumenschein. ''In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein'', p. 113. University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.</ref>
}}

==References==
* {{cite book |last1=Hassrick |first1=Peter H. |last2=Cunningham |first2=Elizabeth J. |title=In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-8061-3948-7}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Larson |first1=Robert W. |last2=Larson |first2=Carole B. |title=Ernest L. Blumenschein: The Life of an American Artist |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0806143347}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110718025439/http://www.denverartmuseum.org/explore_art/temporaryExhibitionDetails/exhibitionId--176056/exhibitionType--Current Denver Art Museum: ''In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20020806153502/http://taosmuseums.org/blumenschein.php Museum Association of Taos: ''E.L. Blumenschein Home and Museum'']
*[https://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/03/witness-to-the-american-west.html PBS NewsHour: ''Witness to the American West''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140117181154/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/03/witness-to-the-american-west.html |date=January 17, 2014 }} (narrated slide show)
*[http://www.phxart.org/exhibition/exhibitionrhythm.php Phoenix Art Museum: ''In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025085803/http://www.phxart.org/exhibition/exhibitionrhythm.php |date=October 25, 2012 }}
*[https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/ernest-blumenschein-papers-6744 A finding aid to the Ernest Blumenschein papers, 1873-1964, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=7601| name=Ernest L. Blumenschein}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ernest Leonard Blumenschein}}
* {{LCAuth|n50009588|E.L. Blumenschein|13|}}

;Paintings
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110707074919/http://denver.about.com/od/artsentertainment/ig/In-Contemporary-Rhythm-Images/Afternoon-of-a-Sheepherder.htm Afternoon of a Sheepherder]'' (1939)
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110707074924/http://denver.about.com/od/artsentertainment/ig/In-Contemporary-Rhythm-Images/Haystack--Taos-Valley.htm Haystack, Taos Valley]'' (prior to 1927, reworked 1940)
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20091110210521/http://www.rockwellmuseum.org/Ernest-L-Blumenscheins-Jury-for-Trial-of-a-Sheepherder-for-Murder.html Jury for Trial of a Sheepherder for Murder]'' (1936)
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110707074940/http://denver.about.com/od/artsentertainment/ig/In-Contemporary-Rhythm-Images/Ourselves-and-Taos-Neighbors.htm Ourselves and Taos Neighbors]'' (1931)
*''[http://www.ou.edu/artcollections/collections/fleischaker/blumenschein_paris.html Paris Apartment]'' (1906–1909)
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110707074944/http://denver.about.com/od/artsentertainment/ig/In-Contemporary-Rhythm-Images/Portrait-of-Albedia.htm Portrait of Albedia]'' (ca. 1918)
*''[http://www.ou.edu/artcollections/collections/fleischaker/blumenschein-taos.html Taos Valley and Mountain]''
*''[http://www.ou.edu/artcollections/collections/american/blumenschein_yellow.html Yellow Cottonwoods]''
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131019045447/http://sam.nmartmuseum.org/view/objects/asitem/People$0040344/0?t:state:flow=9c3c6a65-6725-4e37-a8f7-8b055eca5183 Dance at Taos]''

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blumenschein, Ernest L.}}
[[Category:American landscape painters]]
[[Category:Artists of the American West]]
[[Category:American modern artists]]
[[Category:Taos Society of Artists]]
[[Category:1874 births]]
[[Category:1960 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Taos, New Mexico]]
[[Category:Académie Julian alumni]]
[[Category:Art Students League of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Artists from Dayton, Ohio]]
[[Category:19th-century American painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]
[[Category:20th-century American painters]]
[[Category:Painters from Pittsburgh]]
[[Category:National Academy of Design members]]
[[Category:19th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:20th-century American male artists]]