Olin Herman Travis

Olin Herman Travis, a native Texan, was the son of Olin Few Travis, a printer by profession from a distinguished southern family, distantly related to William Barret Travis,  commander of the Alamo.  Travis soon exhibited a talent for art and was given a liberal education, receiving instruction from a number of leading artists of the country, including Charles Francis Browne, Kenyon Cox, Ralph Clarkson, Harry Walcott and the Spanish artist Sorolla.

Painting in oils, watercolor, pastels and tempera, his subjects include landscapes, portraits, etc., winning several awards at the Art Institute of Chicago.  His works have been exhibited in many of America’s foremost museums.  Travis also taught art at the Chicago Art Institute and was director at the Chicago Commercial Art School.

After leaving Chicago in 1913, he spent several years sketching throughout the country, including a six month cruise on the Great Lakes and several winters in Florida and trips to the Ozark Mountains where his artist wife Kathryne Hail Travis, his former Chicago student, was born. 

In 1923, Kathryne & Olin moved to Dallas and opened a studio and quickly became popular members of the local art colony.  During the 1920s, his works were exhibited at the Dallas Art Association  of which he was director.  In 1923, Travis exhibited also at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, a major annual exhibit which included works by Monet and other classicists.

In addition to his artistic creativity, Travis also offered his talents  as an art instructor and writer.  In January, 1926, the Dallas Art Institute was organized with Travis serving as President of the school.

The next year, the Travis’s Ozark Summer School of Painting, a summer colony for art students was established in the Ozark Mountain district. Travis believed and taught his students the importance of study from the model in the open air with the indoor work of the studio as an essential factor in the painters work. The camp was situated in the heart of the Boston Range of the Ozarks, twenty miles north of Ozark, Arkansas, the site of an abandoned sawmill town in Cass, Arkansas.  Here the art students spent the month of July, where a wealth of material was at the doorstep of the camp, with an ever-changing drama of color and form to tempt the painter.

Travis distinguished himself as a painter of Texas landscapes in a tonalist-impressionist manner. In the 30′s he painted Colorado landscapes, and his work had evolved stylistically by that time.  In the mid-1930′s, Travis married his second wife, Josephine Oliver.

Travis’ memberships included the Chicago Society of Artists, Texas Fine Arts Association, Southern States Art League, Highland Park Art Association, the American Artists Professional League, and the American Federation of the Arts.  His works are included in many private and public collections.

This gallery includes images of as many known paintings by Olin Herman Travis as could be gathered.  Many are from the family collections, while others are gathered from the internet and are in public and private collections.

During the course of researching Pilgrims of the Palette: The Artistic Legacy of Olin Herman Travis, the following resources proved particularly relevant to the artist and the primary benchmarks of his life and artistic genre.