Taos Painters: Nick Eggenhofer (1897 - 1985) Nick Eggenhofer was one of the most popular illustrators of western story magazines and books in America from the 1920s to 1940s.Born in Gaunting, Germany, Eggenhofer grew up reading the Old West adventure novels popular in Germany at the time. As a youth, he saw the 1898 movie, Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and experienced a live Wild West show in Munich in 1909, clinching a life-long fascination with the American frontier.At age 16, Eggenhofer emigrated to New Jersey under the sponsorship of an uncle. While working at various jobs, he made drawings and paintings, and collected images of the West as reference for his art. In 1916 he began four years of night classes at the Cooper Union, and apprenticed at American Lithograph Company during the day. In 1920 Eggenhofer made his first art sale-three western watercolors-to the firm of Street and Smith, publishers of the highly popular Western Story Magazine. When a strike shut down American Lithograph, he joined the staff of Street and Smith producing pen and ink drawings for the magazine.Eggenhofer married in 1924 and the next year the couple set out in their Model T for his first trip West, visiting Santa Fe, Taos and the Grand Canyon. Eggenhofer was not disappointed with the country he had dreamed of all his life. Not surprisingly, he felt it gave his work Nickeggenhofer.com~Site InfoWhoisTrace RouteRBL Check
