Bert Geer Phillips

born Hudson, New York, 1868; died San Diego, California, 1956

BiographyA native of Hudson, New York, Bert Phillips was fascinated by stories of the West from childhood. At the age of 16 he began his art training in New York at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. For several years he had a studio in New York before traveling to England and then to France to enroll at the Académie Julian in Paris. There the artist Joseph Sharp told him about New Mexico, and in 1898 he made his first trip there with the painter Ernest Blumenschein. Phillips was immediately enchanted and permanently relocated to Taos, becoming the first of the Taos Society artist to settle there. Phillips was later instrumental in the formation of the Taos Society of Artists in 1915 and became well known for his idyllic images of Native American life. He also enjoyed success as a western illustrator and throughout his career painted a number of murals in New Mexico, Iowa, Arizona, and Missouri.

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