Reid Crowell – Farm and Ranch

It’s #WayBackWednesday and we have a really interesting Agriculture + Art + History connection to share for #FromFlowersToFoodWeek!

Reid Crowell was born in 1911 in Iowa, and studied art in Minnesota, Colorado, and the Dallas Art Institute where he studied under artists such as Olin Travis and Karl Gasslander. He was an illustration graphic artist and wood carver. He began teaching at the Dallas Art Institute when he was only 18 and taught there until 1934. Reid had an exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in Dallas titled “Reid Crowell: One-Man Show” from May 20 to June 1, 1945 with block prints of fictional characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Robinson Crusoe, and Huckleberry Finn and paintings such as Country Church, which is in the Grace Museum’s permanent collection.

This oil on canvas by Reid Crowell was the cover image of a Farm and Ranch, Vol. 57, No. 7, issue published by the Texas Farm & Ranch Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas, April 1, 1938. The Grace Museum has both the Farm and Ranch issue and the painting in the permanent collection, acquired through a museum exchange and purchase in 1992.

The Farm and Ranch journal began in 1883 as the Texas Farm and Ranch, first published in Austin and moved to Dallas in 1885, and ran until 1963. The journal printed articles to promote agriculture and help with the improvement of farmer’s lives in as it targeted farmers and ranchers in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico.