Walter Ufer
Old Spanish Gate, Taos
Walter Ufer, Old Spanish Gate, Taos, 1914, oil on canvas board, 10 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas.
After his arrival in Taos, Ufer abandoned the studio for painting outdoors. The Old Spanish Gate, painted during his first trip to Taos, is an excellent example of his new approach. Ufer paid his bill to Thomas “Doc” Martin (1864–1935) in Taos with this painting.
The real-life Old Spanish Gate stood across Kit Carson Road and a bit west of the entrance to J. H. Sharp’s studio and was sometimes called “Romero’s Gate.” Over ten years, Sharp created a series of paintings of Romero’s Gate beginning in 1916 as the gate and wall deteriorated.