The Taos Six and the Taos Society of Artists

Haystack, Taos Valley Ernest L. Blumenschein *

Taos today is well-known as an international center of American art due to the efforts by a small group of six artists to establish Taos as an art colony just after the turn of the 20th century. The first artist to permanently settle in Taos in 1898 and the founder of the Taos Society of Artists was Bert Geer Phillips. However, Joseph Henry Sharp was the man who was largely responsible for bringing the charms of the area and its native population to the attentions of the artists with whom he studied in Paris, namely Phillips, Ernest Blumenschein, and eventually, E.I. Couse. Sharp led an amazing life.

Joseph Henry Sharp

Shadows in the Night ca. 1906 Joseph Henry Sharp *