Master Outdoor Painters
Ernest Martin Hennings
1886-1956

E. Martin Hennings was born on February 5, 1886, in Penns Grove, New Jersey. Hennings enrolled in summer classes at the Art Institute of Chicago at the age of fifteen and became a fulltime student after finishing high school.  Hennings graduated from the Art Institute with honors in 1904 and continued his studies at the school for two more years.  After he finished school, Hennings worked in the Chicago area as an illustrator for six years.   He ultimately found commercial art unsatisfying and sought further artistic study in Europe.  In 1912, Hennings traveled to Munich to attend the Munich Academy.  He studied under Franz von Stück, Angelo Junk and Walter Thor. He remained in Germany until the outbreak of World War I.

Hennings returned to Chicago and spent two more years as a commercial illustrator before deciding to pursue a career in fine art. One of Hennings patrons, Carter H. Harrison, a former Mayor of Chicago, convinced Hennings to travel to Taos, New Mexico, to paint for a season. The trip would be funded by Harrison and Oscar Mayer, the founder of the meat packing dynasty.  Both men promised to buy the paintings Hennings created in New Mexico.  Hennings friends, Victor Higgins and Walter Ufer had earlier traveled to Taos with Harrison’s help.

Hennings moved to Taos in 1921.  In 1924, he was invited to join the Taos Society of Artists.  In 1926, Hennings married Helen Otte.  The newlyweds journeyed to Europe for sixteen months before returning to Taos in 1927.  The Depression was hard on the Taos artists and Hennings worked for the WPA Mural Project.

Hennings won many awards during his career.  His work was purchased for the permanent collections of numerous museums across the United States.  His working habit was to paint his landscapes from life and then add figures to the painting later.  He would return outdoors to design the placement of the figures and finish the details in the studio.  His portraits were painted from life.  Hennings powerful sense of design and strong drawing abilities helped to create striking canvases filled with intense color and light.  His paintings show a fidelity to craftsmanship as well as artistic excellence.

Hennings died of a heart attack in Taos in1956