Oscar Bernighaus
(1847-1952)

Oscar Bernighaus attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and went on to become a plein-air painter who specialized in depictions of Pueblo Indians and Southwestern landscapes. He began as a lithographer in 1889 and apprenticed as a printer while at school. He became a very dedicated artist afterwards and won a prize in the St. Louis Artists Guild exhibition every year he entered (1915,17-24, 26). Bernighaus first traveled west on the Denver-Rio Grande Railroad and found himself intrigued with Taos. He began to visit every summer until settling there in 1925. His work can be seen at the San Diego Fine Art Gallery and the Museum of New Mexico.