Mornings in New Mexico

Saturday Morning: The Paintings "Personally, I don't know how that H.G. Lawrence guy ever made any money", said Robert, our driver, as he dropped Donna and me off at our accommodation in Taos. Donna, the traitor, agreed with him. We were spending a week of our U.S. vacation in New Mexico and, as we were unwilling to drive in America, we had hired Robert and his company to drive us from hotel to hotel and to take us on various tours. One of the tours, the following Sunday, was to include a trip to the D.H. Lawrence Ranch - so long as it didn't snow, Robert warned, as that might make it impossible to get up to the Ranch. However, it was a lovely warm Friday afternoon in Taos and I couldn't imagine it snowing.

The following morning, Donna and I went to explore Taos Plaza, which was only a 10 minute walk away from El Pueblo Lodge, the Bed & Breakfast we were staying at. Donna, who had seemed intent on buying up most of the silver jewelry produced by the Native Indians in Santa Fe, where we'd spent a couple of nights, now seemed equally determined to buy up most of Taos. "John, we just HAVE to go into this store," she said about a dozen times before we finally reached the La Fonda Hotel at the other side of the Plaza.

La Fonda hotel in Taos plaza

I truly don't know how I restrained myself - even though I didn't really think Lawrence was much of a painter, I very much wanted to see the small exhibition of his paintings in the La Fonda. Donna, who hates, loathes and despises Lawrence, didn't want to see them and continued shopping nearby, as I went into the hotel alone, paid my $2.00 admission fee, and was shown into the room where the paintings were hung. I stayed there for about 25 minutes, having the place all to myself, and was won over a little bit by some of the paintings, especially by 'A Holy Family'. Altogether, there are nine paintings by Lawrence on exhibition, all signed 'Lorenzo', along with a small, telling portrait of him by Knud Merrild. There are also a number of framed documents and newspaper articles relating to the paintings, which make fascinating reading. I'm glad I saw the paintings; I came away liking them a bit more than I had done previously.

The exhibition of Lawrence's paintings at La Fonda

Later that day, we went into Moby Dickens, a marvellous bookstore, which has a large selection of out of print Lawrence-related items. I picked up a copy of J. Middleton Murry's 'Reminiscences of D.H. Lawrence' to add to the growing collection of books I'd bought during the previous week in New York and Santa Fe, and was very seriously tempted by a lovely copy of a facsimile of the Sons and Lovers manuscript but it was to expensive (for me) and far too large and heavy to carry (I could have had it shipped, I guess, if I were fabulously wealthy). Still, I would love to own a copy of that book ...

Sunday morning --- Monday morning, part 1 --- Monday morning, part 2