Paul B. Travis

Born in Wellsville, Ohio, Paul Bough Travis grew up on his family's farm. After attending high school, he worked for a few years as a teacher in a country schoolhouse. Inspired by a catalogue to attend the Cleveland School of Art, he enrolled at the school in 1913 and graduated in 1917. During his student years he associated with Henry Keller and Charles Burchfield. In 1918 Travis served in the army, stationed in France. He remained overseas for a year after the Armistice, painting watercolors and teaching at American universities in France and Germany. In 1920 he returned to Cleveland and began exhibiting at the annual May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art, continuing to do so for more than 50 years. He served on the faculty of the Cleveland School of Art, 1919-57. In 1927 he fulfilled a lifelong dream to paint in Africa, where he also purchased tribal art with funds provided by the Gilpin Players of Karamu House. The works were subsequently divided between the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Karamu House. Exhibitions of his African subjects were held at the Eastman-Bolton Galleries of Cleveland (1929) and the Milwaukee Art Institute (1931). In the 1930s his paintings were featured in group shows at the Carnegie Institute of Art in Pittsburgh and the Art Institute of Chicago. The Butler Art Institute in Youngstown organized a solo exhibition of his paintings (1943). Travis continued to paint after retiring from teaching in 1957 and died in Cleveland. <em>Transformations in Cleveland Art. </em>(CMA, 1996), p. 239.<br>Biographical information exists in the Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.