Olin Herman Travis (Texas, 1888-1975), woman walking in woods with pole, oil on panel, signed lower left

sight: 12 x 16 in., frame: 27.5 x 30.5 in.

Provenance: Property from a home in Dallas, Texas; thence by family descent to a home in Houston, Texas

Originally from Dallas, Olin Travis enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1909, where he studied for five years before becoming an associate instructor. Travis worked briefly thereafter as a commercial artist and as an instructor at the Chicago Commercial Art School. In 1924 Travis moved back to Dallas with his wife, Kathryne Hail Travis. In 1926, with James Wadden, the couple founded the Dallas Art Institute and later, in Cass, Arkansas, the Ozark Summer School of Painting, which they operated for three summers. For many years Olin Travis was head of the Dallas Art Institute (1926 - 1941). In the summer of 1933, he traveled to West Texas in Frank Reaugh's sketching caravan. Travis taught two years as a guest instructor at the San Antonio Art Institute (1944 - 1945), and a year at Austin College, Sherman (1951). A prolific painter, he recorded landscapes, Dallas scenes, and figures from the 1920s until his death in Dallas, The Dallas Public Library's Technicolor film entitled "Olin Travis: A Visit to His Studio" shows the artist at work and many of his paintings.