Texas Originals

Allie Victoria Tennant

c. 1898–December 19, 1971

Visitors entering the Hall of State in Dallas’s Fair Park pass under a gilded bronze sculpture of an archer with a drawn bow preparing to fire. The piece, titled Tejas Warrior, is a masterpiece of line, muscle, and potential energy—and is the best-known work of one of the least-known major Texas artists.

Born in the late 1890s, sculptor Allie Victoria Tennant grew up in Dallas. After studying art in New York and Europe, she returned to her hometown and joined a community of artists inspired by the history and culture of the Southwest. Her Tejas Warrior was commissioned for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.

In a career that lasted through the 1960s, Tennant gained national recognition for her work while advancing Texas artistic culture.

In the early forties, she served as the first president of the Texas Sculptors Group. She helped establish the Women’s Building at Fair Park to highlight women’s cultural contributions. Tennant also taught at the Art Institute of Dallas and advanced civic institutions such as the Dallas Museum of Art. As a committed member of the Dallas Garden Club, Tennant championed several civic beautification projects, reflecting her dedication to public art.

Tennant died in 1971. Her legacy includes not only her own expressive works but also institutions that continue to support Texas art and artists.

For More about Allie Victoria Tennant

Tennant’s most famous work, Tejas Warrior (1936), can be found in the Portico Tejas entrance to the Texas Hall of State. The piece has become an iconic part of Dallas history since its creation for the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration and the Pan-American Exposition in 1937 in Dallas.

Many of Tennant’s sculptures are on display or in storage at the Dallas Museum of Art, including Portrait of E. G. Eisenlohr (1950), Negro Head (1935), Mrs. George K. Meyer (1928), and Woman’s Head (1940). Tennant’s piece Negro Head is known for its experimentation with direct carving, a popular technique among Regionalists that defied the traditional process of using bronze and marble.

Allie Tennant’s Dallas studio, built in the mid-1920s and designed by architect Walter Sharp, is still present on the family’s property on Live Oak Street. The cottage-style studio witnessed the creations of some of Tennant’s best work and was her creative space until her death in 1971.

Tennant has three plaster reliefs, titled "Oil," "Cattle," and "Wheat," on display in the lobby of the United States Post Office in Electra, Texas. The three pieces were commissioned in 1940 by the Federal Art Projects, a program initiated by President Roosevelt as part of the New Deal.

More of Tennant’s work can be found throughout Dallas in the Hockaday School, the Women’s Club, and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Tennant’s work is also displayed at Brookgreen Gardens in Georgetown County, South Carolina.

Selected Bibliography

Cummins, Light Townsend. Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2015.

Kendall, Curlee. "Tennant, Allie Victoria." Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed January 3, 2017.

Hendricks, Patricia D. and Becky Duval Reese. A Century of Sculpture in Texas: 1889–1989. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989. 

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Allie Victoria Tennant in her studio. Photographed by Peter A. Juley & Son. Photograph Study Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Allie Victoria Tennant's Tejas Warrior statue outside the Hall of State at Fair Park, site of the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration and the 1937 Pan-American Exposition in Dallas, Texas. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.