Bert Geer Phillips (1868–1956)

When Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein reached Taos in 1898, both tenderfeet who didn’t know how to saddle a horse or harness a team, Phillips began dreaming of establishing an art colony in the isolated Western town. He was the first of the painters later known as members of the Taos Society of Artists to live full-time in Taos, and over the years he spent more time in Taos than any of his fellows.

A native of Hudson, New York, Phillips had studied at the Arts Students League in New York City and the National Academy of Design. He then attended the Académie Julian in Paris, where he met Ernest Blumenschein and J. H. Sharp.

In Taos, Phillips was captivated by the Pueblo people he observed at the San Geronimo Day celebration and enthralled by the surrounding landscape. Perhaps even more significant, he was smitten early on with Rose H. Martin, Doc Martin’s sister, whom he later married. Rose gave him a reason to stay in Taos, and Doc Martin provided introductions to people living both in town and at the Pueblo. The Taos Society of Artists was in fact founded in the dining room of Phillips’s in-laws Doc and Helen Martin.

Living in Taos at a time when the town was home to only a few Anglos, Phillips made the mistake at one point of not removing his hat during a procession for the Feast of Guadalupe held on the plaza. A scuffle ensued, and the sheriff arrested and jailed Phillips briefly—until Doc Martin slipped the jail keys out of the wounded sheriff’s pocket and Phillips went free.

Recognizing his error, Phillips enrolled in a Spanish language class to help improve his relations with local Hispanos.

From 1899 to 1904, Phillips and Frank Staplin owned the Taos Indian Curio Shop, where Virginia Couse is known to have purchased a pair of Cheyenne moccasins for $3.00.

In later years, Phillips was instrumental in establishing the Taos National Forest. He became the first forest ranger in Taos when his failing eyesight made it difficult for him to paint.

People from Taos Pueblo remember Phillips as an artist who loved and respected the Pueblo residents that he painted. As a forest ranger, he is known as having secured the Pueblo watershed and protected access to tribal lands where Native people hunted and performed sacred ceremonies.