ERNEST HENNINGS

Ernest Martin Hennings was born to German parents in Penns Grove, New Jersey in 1886. During the early part of his childhood, Hennings’ father moved the family to Chicago, a place that would later prove to be crucial to his development as an artist. As a teenager, he spent time visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, and eventually enrolled in the school in 1901. Although he graduated in 1904, he remained at the school for an additional two years in order to continue studying with his mentor John Vanderpoel. In Chicago, his early career as a painter and printmaker was bolstered by commissions for commercial art, portraits, and murals, including a large-scale work for the interior of a church in Topeka, Kansas.

In 1912, Hennings entered a competition for painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, winning second prize. This allowed him to travel around Europe, where he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany. As a member of the American Artists Club in Munich, he became acquainted with artists Victor Higgins and Walter Ufer, who later joined him as part of the Taos Society of Artists.

In 1914, as World War I unfolded, Hennings left Europe and returned to Chicago. Shortly after resettling in the Midwest, however, he was offered sponsorship for travel to New Mexico from a wealthy patron who had already commissioned a number of local artists to create work onsite in Taos. Hennings traveled to Taos in the summer of 1917 at a time when artists from across the country were flocking to the Southwestern town. As he became increasingly active in the local art scene, his profile as an artist began to rise, leading to exhibition opportunities and additional commissions. The natural environment and financial stability allowed Hennings to experiment with plein air painting and portraiture as he primarily focused on Native Americans in the area, and developed a distinct style of oil painting. He continued to paint in the region after the Taos Society of Artists disbanded in 1927, and exhibited in venues across the country while gaining international recognition for his paintings, particularly with annual prizes earned over the course of two decades.

Hennings died in Taos, New Mexico in 1956 at 70 years old but was buried in his adopted city of Chicago. His paintings and lithographs are housed in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Stark Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Denver Art Museum, among other institutions throughout the United States.