Night Scene

Painter Ernest Leonard Blumenschein was born in Pittsburgh and raised in Dayton, OH. At the age of 17, he was offered a scholarship to study violin at the Cincinnati Conservatory.

After a year of studying music, Blumenschein decided to follow his interest in art. He studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy, Art Students League in New York, and the Académie Julian in Paris.

In 1895 he met painter Joseph Henry Sharp. At the urging of Sharp, he traveled to Taos, NM on a sketching trip in 1898.

Blumenschein returned to Paris in 1899 and lived there until 1909 when he returned to the U.S. For the next eight years, he lived and worked in New York City, while spending his summers back in Taos.

In 1915, Blumenschein, along with Sharp and others, founded the Taos Society of Artists. He moved to Taos permanently in 1919.