EMILY RUTLAND (1890-1983)

Emily Edith Schwarz Rutland was born in July 5, 1890 in Lee County and reared on farms in Coryell and Nueces counties, in the Petronila area and in Kingsville, Texas. In 1927-28, she attended the San Antonio Art School and received formal training with Xavier Gonzales. Additionally, she had several short periods of formal training under Cyril Kay-Scott, Frederick Taubes, and Donald Pierce in summer workshops in Corpus Christi; she received informal advice from Lenora McNess Smith. Later she went to classes at Texas A&I, now Texas A&M University-Kingsville. She married J. B. Rutland, a farmer of the Robstown area.

Rutland was a founding member of the South Texas Art League and taught watercolor to many area artists. She worked in a variety of media including watercolors, charcoal, pastel sketches, pen and ink, lithographs, prints and portfolios. As a painter and printmaker, Rutland is best known for her depictions of farm animals which were often dark and moody and landscape paintings. Rutland painted occasionally in Mexico and Colorado but specialized in works depicting genre scenes (particularly mules and horses) on her farm near Robstown in Nueces County. She moved in the 1970s from her farm to nearby Kingsville were she died in 1983. She was buried in Robstown.

Throughout her career, Rutland widely exhibited, including: Highland Park Exhibit of Dallas, Issac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans (1935 and 1937 one-woman); Texas Centennial Exhibition, Dallas (1936); Texas Fine Arts Association Annual Exhibition (1944-46, 1947 prize) and many more. Rutland’s artwork can be found in the permanent collections of: the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; San Antonio Art League Museum, San Antonio, TX; Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, TX; Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX; The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX; U.S. Information Service, Washington, D.C.; Texas A&M University—Kingsville, TX; and many more.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

1890, Born in Lee County in Texas
Formally studies under Cyril Kay-Scott
1927-28, Studies under Xavier Gonzalez in Santa Fe, Texas
Studies under during summer workshops in Corpus Christi, Texas
1983, Died in Kingsville, Texas

Selected Exhibitions

1950, 1952-56, 1961, 1964, 1976, 1980, San Antonio Local Artists Exhibition, Witte Memorial Museum
1950, 1954, 1957, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1971, Texas General Exhibitions
1951-53, 1955, 1957, 1976, Texas Fine Arts Association, Laguna Gloria Art Museum
1956-58, Contemporary American Drawings, European Tour, U.S. Information Services
1956-59, Contemporary American Paintings, European Tour, American Federation of Arts
1956, 1958, 1959, D.D. Feldman Invitational Exhibitions, Dallas Museum of Art
1956, 1971, 2002, McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas
1957-58, A Survey of Texas Paintings, American Federation of Arts and Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
1958, Collages, Watercolors, Drawings, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, New York
1959, Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas
1962, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
1988, The McNay and the Texas Artist, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
1996, 1950s Artists of the Year, San Antonio Art League Museum

Selected Public Collections

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio Art League Museum, San Antonio, Texas
Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas
Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
U.S. Information Service, Washington, D.C.

Emily Rutland

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