About the artist:

Ernest Martin Hennings (1886–1956) was an American artist and member of the Taos Society of Artists. E. Martin Hennings was born in Penns Grove, New Jersey on February 5, 1886 to German immigrant parents. Two years after he was born, Hennings' father moved his family to Chicago. Looking back on his early exposure to art and his decision to pursue a life as an artist, Hennings remarked; "It was rather strange that I chose painting for my profession, for practically none of my family showed any artistic tendencies. It happened that when I was 12 or 13 years old, another lad and myself wandered into the Art Institute of Chicago and it was during that visit that I determined to become an artist. That day I secured a pamphlet that showed me that art could be studied. That had never occurred to me." It was in 1901 that Hennings began taking classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which was largely based on the great European art schools and made particularly emphasis on the importance of drawing. On June 17, 1904, he graduated from the school with honors, but continued to study there for another two years, mostly under the instruction of John Vanderpoel. Hennings eventually took up work as a commercial artist, mostly painting murals and portraits around Chicago. Murals on which Hennings worked, usually on canvas panels, include one for the cafeteria at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Florentine Ballroom at the Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago, and The Ascension, a mural painted for the Grace Episcopal Cathedral in Topeka, Kansas. By the 1920s, the now established painter was building his reputation on the national scene, with exhibitions and awards including; the Walter Lippincott Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1925), the lsidor Medal and the Ranger Fund Purchase prizes at the National Academy of Design in New York (1926), the Harry Frank Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago (1927), exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1928 and 1933), and won first prize at the 1929 Texas Wildflower Competition. Hennings's success was not limited to the United States, however, and he was included in the 1924 Venice Biennale, the International Exhibition in Paris in 1926, and the 1927 Paris Salon. Many art collectors throughout America sought out his paintings. Such private patrons included Carter H. Harrison, Jr., Oscar F. Mayer, Robert McKee, and Lutcher Stark. Hennings also received support from the Public Works of Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture, which commissioned the mural The Chosen Site in a Van Buren, Arkansas, post office.[11] The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad also broadly supported his work, including commissioning specific works for advertisements, and remained a supporter of Hennings throughout his career. E. Martin Hennings died May 19, 1956. Hennings was buried in his hometown of Chicago, rather than his adopted town of Taos, New Mexico. Today paintings by Hennings are housed in the following museums; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Stark Museum of Art, Booth Western Art Museum, C.M. Russell Museum, Denver Art Museum, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Gilcrease Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Rockwell Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Museum of Wildlife Art, and Woolaroc Museum. The E. Martin Hennings House and Studio Historic District in Taos is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.