Born in Pennsgrove, New Jersey and raised in Chicago by German immigrant parents, Ernest Hennings became a highly recognized painter of western subjects, particularly of Indians of New Mexico where he joined The Taos Society of Artists.
Of his painting, it was written: "He was most successful in unifying the human figure with a sunshine-filled, happy, natural setting." (Zellman 808). The last project of the artist before his death in 1956, was a series of paintings at the Navajo Reservation in Ganado for a Santa Fe Railroad calendar.
When he was young, his family moved to Chicago, and for five years, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from which he graduated with honors. After working six years as a commercial artist, he enrolled in 1912 at the Munich Academy in Germany where he learned to paint in the style of academic realism.