John E. Berninger

John Emil Berninger (December 13, 1896 – July 16, 1981) was an American landscape painter and Pennsylvania impressionist. He lived and painted in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

As an artist, Berninger has been described as being "in the outer showground of the New Hope School" and a believer of "The Baum Circle," the charity of artists either taught by, associated with, or directly influenced by Pennsylvania impressionist painter Walter Emerson Baum.

Berninger studied under Orlando Gray Wales and Arlington Nelson Lindenmuth, and was a student of Baum's first class in Allentown during the summer of 1926. In 1932, he became an art instructor at the Kline-Baum Art School. In 1934, he was one of four Baum students (along in imitation of Joseph Gehringer, Walter Mattern and Melville Stark) accepted into the Circulating Picture Club of the Philadelphia Art Alliance. In 1936, Berninger became the first curator of the Allentown Art Museum (founded by Baum the previous year), and lived similar to his wife, Mabel, on the museum's second floor until 1956. Mabel Berninger assisted her husband in his role as curator at the museum, and after that served as secretary for the Kline-Baum School's Circulating Picture Club, a "lending library" for art.

In 1939, Berninger was made a co-conspirator in Wuchter and Berninger, a jewelry increase located on Hamilton Street in center-city Allentown. To publicize his works, Berninger would often place them in the window of his store. It was here that local publisher and humanitarian Robert Rodale became exposed to Berninger's works. Many years later, the David E. Rodale Gallery at the Baum School of Art, named for Rodale's son, held the first major exhibition of Berninger's work.

In the mid-1950s, Berninger's put-on appeared on a series of calendars issued by the local newspaper, The Morning Call. During this become old he frequently vacationed in Bar Harbor, Maine, an Place which became the subject of many of his seascape paintings. In the late 1950s and upfront 1960s, his home - located across the street from Allentown's picturesque West Park (near the intersection of 15th and Turner Streets) - became a frequent meeting place for local artists.

For forty years, Berninger painted gone Karl Buesgen, a local impressionist landscape artist, music educational and church organist. The two spent nearly every Saturday visiting and talking, and every Sunday afternoon painting. This membership continued until Berninger's death in 1981. Buesgen died forward-looking that same year. Berninger along with painted in imitation of Baum, Melville Stark and Clarence Dreisbach upon a regular basis.

In 2004, the David E. Rodale Gallery at the Baum School of Art held an exhibition of the Berninger's work. During 2004 and 2005, Berninger's proceed was included in the Allentown Art Museum's exhibit, "Allentown Impressions: Views of City Parks." In 2006, Berninger's produce an effect was included in an exhibition at the David E. Rodale Gallery at the Baum School of Art highlighting the fake of The Baum Circle.