Olin Travis (American, 1888-1975). The Brook, Ozarks. Oil on board. 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm). Signed lower right...

Description

Olin Travis (American, 1888-1975)
The Brook, Ozarks
Oil on board
30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Signed lower right with artist's cypher: Olin Travis
Signed, titled, and inscribed on the reverse: The Brook, Ozarks / by / Olin Travis / #254

Property from the Estate of Olin Travis and Josephine Oliver

EXHIBITED:
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas, "Olin Travis: Texas Master," 1995, no. 15.

Considered Dallas's first native-born professional artist, Olin Herman Travis (1888-1976) impacted the arts in
Texas as painter, muralist, and teacher. Younger than the "Old Guard" of Texas art--such as Frank Reaugh
and Robert J. Onderdonk--and older than the Lone Star Regionalists (Jerry Bywaters, Alexandre Hogue, and
Florence McClung), Travis exhibited with both generations and trained many of the younger ones for national
recognition.

Travis's neighbor, Dallas sculptor Clyde Giltner Chandler, and an introduction to San Augustine painter S.
Seymour Thomas sparked Travis's interest in art. He later studied under Dallas artists Vivian Aunspaugh,
Reaugh, and R. Jerome Hill and was also active in both the Dallas Art League and the Dallas Art Association.
In 1909 Travis enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago where he demonstrated against the Armory Show (a
controversial exhibition of European and American Modern art) in 1913. He began teaching at the AIC the
following year and later at the Chicago Commercial Art School.

Following his marriage to Kathryne Hail, a former student, the Travises traveled through the United States
sketching and painting before returning to Dallas in 1924. Two years later the Travises founded the Art
Institute of Dallas (AID), which Olin directed through 1940-41. Eventually the AID became part of the Dallas
Museum of Fine Arts (now the Dallas Museum of Art) and Travis turned to private teaching. Travis also
taught at the San Antonio Art Institute; Austin College at Sherman, Texas; and the Hockaday School at Dallas.
Some of the leading Texas artists of the 1930s and 1940s taught and studied at the AID at Travis's invitation,
including Reveau Bassett, James Brooks, Charles T. Bowling, Jerry Bywaters, Harry Carnohan, Harriett
Grandstaff, Alexandre Hogue, William Lester, Thomas M. Stell Jr., Allie Tennant, Kathryne Hail Travis, and
Amelia Urbach.

The Travises painted extensively in Arkansas and conducted a summer art school in the mountains near
Casss from the 1920s through the mid-1930s. Travis paintings such as The Brook, Ozarks (71001), are among
his strongest. A studio fire ended the school abruptly in the mid-1930s, destroying many Travis paintings.
Yet, Travis "discovered" future "Lone Star Regionalist" Everett Spruce there and encouraged him to study at
the AID.

Paralleling his accomplishments as teacher, Travis also had an impressive exhibition record including the Art
Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art at New York. In Texas, Travis exhibited at the Texas
artists annual at Fort Worth, the annual Dallas Allied Arts, the Texas Centennial Exposition (1936), and the
Greater Texas and Pan-American Exposition (1937). Travis exhibited his most acclaimed painting, Whither,
in a solo show at the New York Art Center in 1930 and in "Paintings and Sculpture From Sixteen American
Cities" at the Museum of Modern Art in 1933-34. The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts also held at least three
solo exhibitions for Travis.

-Olin Travis and Josephine Oliver: Texas Masters by Michael R. Grauer


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