String Quartet, c. 1940, oil on canvas mounted on masonite, 25 x 43 3/4 , signed lower left: Olin Travis, EXHIBITED: Olin Travis: Texas Master, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, TX. Dallas born artist Olin Travis began painting at an early age, studying under Frank Reaugh and Vivian Aunspaugh. In 1909, he left Dallas to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and later became an associate instructor. He also became an instructor and the director of the Chicago Commercial Art School and worked as a commercial artist before returning to Dallas with his wife, Kathryne Hail Travis, in 1923. Together, he and Kathryne founded the Dallas Art Institute in 1926 and taught through the Ozark Summer School which they established in Cass, Arkansas. Later in 1934, they were divorced. In 1933, Olin Travis met Josephine Oliver while on a sketching trip with Frank Reaugh. Oliver was a gifted artist and violinist who had studied with Frank Reaugh since the age of 12 and had become Reaugh’s protégé. A romance soon developed between Travis and Oliver and they were married in 1935. Oliver became a concert violinist and played for the San Antonio and Dallas Symonphy Ochestras for many years. She didn’t retire until the late 1970s. Her musical talent was admired by Travis and deeply connected him to the field of music. This influence can be seen in his masterful painting String Quartet. In this work, Travis created a visual crescendo of multi-layered iconography. Neath the light of a full moon, a string quartet plays together on a lake covered in thin ice. Violinist I plays at a near frenetic pace and glides seamlessly across the ice. Unable to keep pace, violinist II has fallen headfirst into the ice. Perched in the bow of a gnarled tree, the violist creates moody and melodic notes. A turkey vulture roosts near him visually echoing his form. At the base of the tree, the cellist is seated and has lost himself in the music. This rare painting exhibits Travis’s stylized figures and links this oeuvre of his work to American and Texas Regionalism movements. An important artist and teacher Travis’s influence was significant in the Dallas Nine group of artists and beyond. During his lifetime, Travis’s paintings were featured in numerous shows throughout Texas, New York, and Colorado and 20+ solo exhibitions were mounted. Today, his work can be found in the following collections: Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, TX; Dallas Museum of Art, TX; Elisabet Ney Museum and Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX; and Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX to name a few. Sources: Texas Artists and Artisans by Vic Roper © 2017; Earth & Sky, The Pastels of Josephine Oliver Travis (1908-1991), 2007 Exhibition at the Tyler Museum of Art.