Taos Colony

Taos Colony. A loose group of American painters who worked in and around Taos, New Mexico, from about 1910. Taos, a community consisting of three villages (the biggest of which is San Fernando de Taos, generally known simply as Taos), was an early Spanish settlement and it has a picturesque atmosphere attractive to painters and writers. The painter most closely associated with the community was Ernest Blumenschein (1874–1960), who first visited it in 1897, later often spent the summer there, and settled permanently in 1919. Marsden Hartley and John Sloan were among the visitors in the 1920s, and Andrew Dasburg settled there in 1930. The Taos artists often depicted Indian life and their work also included landscapes and still-lifes, but no particular style was associated with the colony.