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Born and coming from a noted show business family, Thomas Daniel "Duncan" Benrimo showed early talent as an artist-illustrator. In April 1906, The San Francisco Earthquake destroyed most of his early art work and displaced most of his family. Arriving in New York, he was joined by his Elder Brother, Actor-Performer, Joseph Harry Benrimo, and worked at stage-set desiging. Later, he settled back as an artist-illustrator. As an Illustrator for Fortune, Scribner's and Harper's, Benrimer also taught at Pratt Institute. After relocating to Taos, Benrimer was included in group and solo exhibitions in New York and San Francisco. His work is held by museums including the Denver Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art and Fort Worth Art Museum. www.geni.com/people/Tom-Benrimo/6000000025227453583

Joseph Imhoff was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1871. His first exposure to art was at age six when his godfather gifted him with a box of watercolors. Upon graduation, his father refused him further education unless he became a priest. Rejecting his father's wishes, he started teaching himself lithography and was hired by Currier & Ives. He eventually earned enough money from this job to buy a bookstore. In 1991 he eventually quit his job and sold the bookstore to pursue a formal art education in Europe. Traveling and painting for four years in Paris, Brussels, Antwerp and Munich he apprenticed with several artists.

But perhaps the most important experience he had in Europe was to meet Buffalo Bill Cody on board the ship and join him in Antwerp to spend time sketching and painting various members of the "Wild West Show". This experience set in place a style of painting for the rest of his life which focused on ethnographic and anthropological data rather than artistic expression. He documented the religious ceremonies of Pueblo Indians in large, rather simplified oils. He also learned new techniques for lithography which had a long-term influence on his artwork.

When he returned to New York, he rented a studio in Flatbush and began to study the Iroquois Indians in New York and Canada. He spent the next ten years painting and improving his lithography, photography and color printing innovations - which financed his early painting career. He also freelanced for Allen and Ginter, painting his Indian Head Series for insertion on cards in boxes of cigarettes.

In 1897 Joseph married Sarah Ann Elizabeth Russell, and they traveled to Europe several times until 1905 when they visited the Southwest for the first time to record the ceremonies of the Pueblo Indians. Joseph and built a studio in Albuquerque in 1906, and spent much time in the next few years traveling around the region.

In 1929 Joseph and Sarah moved to Taos permanently and built their new home facing the sacred mountain behind the Taos Pueblo. Their neighbor for some twenty years, Mabel Dodge Lujan, was known to refer to him as, "The Grand Old Man of the Pueblos". He would ask native models to live in his home for a time before he painted them. He felt he needed to know the person's soul that the eyes revealed in order to paint an accurate likeness. He collected many Indian artifacts and also had the first lithography press in Taos, which he used to make ethnographic prints and teach his techniques of recording the region's history. His series of paintings called Kivas and Corn which he gifted to the University of New Mexico was his most famous work. The Koshare Indian Museum also houses one of the largest collections of his paintings.

Joseph Imhof died in 1955 leaving an important legacy of the American Southwest. His wife Sarah in later years said of her husband, "...a gentle, dignified man who loathed the publicity and the limelight that other artists seemed to seek; he avoided publicity at all times..."

http://www.josephimhoffpaintings.com/

Helen Blumenschein was the daughter of nationally famed parents, Ernest and Mary Blumenschein. In 1919 at the age of ten she was brought by her parents from New York to New Mexico, destined with them to pioneer the arts and crafts movement of Taos. Miss Blumenschein stressed that her development as an artist was devoid of parental influence other than the strong family creative atmosphere.

A lifetime deep interest in people, ecology and archaeology is evident in Miss Blumenschein’s dominant work subjects, which depict the mountainous southwest in which she lived most of her life. Her schooling included Taos Schools, The Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, New York; two years study in Paris and printmaking work at the Art Student League in New York City from 1932-36.

She exhibited prints nationally and abroad from 1936-1945 and has had prints purchased by the Carnegie in 1951, New York CityPublic Library, and the New Jersey Library. Some of her selected one-person shows of portraits include Oklahoma City ArtCenter and the New Mexico Museum of Art.

From her arrival in Taos as a small child, driven from the railroad at Raton on the Colorado border by her father, who barely made it over the steep pass, Blumenschein’s work is vital in scope and history.

http://www.parsonsart.com/home/helen-g-blumenschein

Helen Blumenschein was the daughter of nationally famed parents, Ernest and Mary Blumenschein. In 1919 at the age of ten she was brought by her parents from New York to New Mexico, destined with them to pioneer the arts and crafts movement of Taos. Miss Blumenschein stressed that her development as an artist was devoid of parental influence other than the strong family creative atmosphere.

A lifetime deep interest in people, ecology and archaeology is evident in Miss Blumenschein’s dominant work subjects, which depict the mountainous southwest in which she lived most of her life. Her schooling included Taos Schools, The Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, New York; two years study in Paris and printmaking work at the Art Student League in New York City from 1932-36.

She exhibited prints nationally and abroad from 1936-1945 and has had prints purchased by the Carnegie in 1951, New York CityPublic Library, and the New Jersey Library. Some of her selected one-person shows of portraits include Oklahoma City ArtCenter and the New Mexico Museum of Art.

From her arrival in Taos as a small child, driven from the railroad at Raton on the Colorado border by her father, who barely made it over the steep pass, Blumenschein’s work is vital in scope and history.

http://www.parsonsart.com/home/helen-g-blumenschein

http://kennethadamspaintings.com/

Gustave Baumann was born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1881. Ten years later, along with his family, Baumann relocated to the United States, eventually settling in Chicago. Displaying a natural aptitude for the arts, he worked as a commercial engraver while putting himself through night school at the Art Institute of Chicago - before returning to Germany in 1904 to study wood block printing at the Kunstgewerbeschule ("School of Arts and Crafts") in Munich. Upon his return to the United States, Baumann received international acclaim when one of his color woodcuts won the gold medal at the Pan-Pacific International Exhibition (1915) in San Francisco. Three years later, in 1918, Baumann settled in Santa Fe, quickly emerging as a leading artistic figure of the American Southwest. He is generally credited with the revival of color wood block printing in the 20th century, and was hand-picked as Area Coordinator for the Works Progress Administration's Public Works of Art Project in the 1930's. http://www.gustavebaumann.net/Gustave_Baumann_Biography_Page.htm