Bert Geer Phillips
Bert Geer Phillips was an American artist and a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. He was the first artist to permanently settle in Taos, New Mexico and is considered to be the founder of the Taos art colony. He is known for his paintings of Native Americans, New Mexico, and the American Southwest. He was also a benefactor of the Western artist Harold Dow Bugbee, who became curator of the PanhandlePlains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas in 1951.
Phillips was born in Hudson, New York in 1868. During his childhood he was influenced by tales of the exploits of American frontiersman Kit Carson and other tales of Western adventure involving American Indians, such as those in James Fenimore Coopers Leatherstocking Tales. In his recollections of childhood, he noted that he could always be found with paintbrush in hand. He was one of the first to enroll when George McKinstry opened an art studio in Hudson.
Source: Wikipedia