Romantic Visions of the American Southwest: Works on Paper and Paintings by Edward G. Eisenlohr

March 17 - May 16, 2014

Drawn primarily from the holdings of Jerry Bywaters Special Collections in the Hamon Arts Library, this exhibition of lithographs, drawings, archival materials, and a few paintings documents the career of one of Dallas’ most prominent artists from the first half of the 20th century. Edward Gustav Eisenlohr (1872-1961) was born in Ohio to a family of German immigrants, who moved to Dallas when he was two years old. He showed a strong aptitude for art at an early age, winning a prize in the art competition section of the newly established State Fair of Texas and studying for two years at The Concordia in Zurich as a teenager. In 1903, Eisenlohr was instrumental in establishing the Dallas Art Association, forerunner of the Dallas Museum of Art. He studied art with Texas artists Robert J. Onderdonk and Frank Reaugh as well as at the Art Students’ League summer school in Woodstock, New York; he later took additional art training in Germany before returning to Texas. Eisenlohr drew inspiration for art subjects from the Oak Cliff area of Dallas and his travels to New Mexico, the Texas Hill Country, and the western areas of his adopted state. Eisenlohr exhibited both in the U.S., including at the Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Gallery, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, and the National Academy of Design, and in Europe, at the Paris International Exhibition (1932) and the Venice Biennial (1940).