Allie Tennant

Allie Victoria Tennant (1892 or 1898—1971) was an American sculptor born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Thomas Richard and Allie Virginia Brown Tennant. She worked primarily out of Dallas, Texas, where her most famous work Tejas Warrior was produced for the Hall of State at the Texas Centennial Exposition.

Tennant moved to Dallas as a young child and grew up there. It was in Dallas shere she first started studying art with local painter and teacher Vivian Aunspaugh (1869-1960) In 1927 she moved to New York City, where she studied at the Art Students League with Edward McCartan, and also with George Bridgman. In 1930 she traveled to Europe, where she stayed several years, returning too New York to study with Eugene Steinhof.

During the Great Depression US President Franklin Deleno Roosevelt initiated the New Deal. One of its programs was the Federal Art Projects under which the federal government hired artists, mostly painters and sculptors to create art for a variety of public places, often post offices. For such a program Tennant created three plaster reliefs, "Oil," "Cattle," and "Wheat" for the USPO in Electra, Texas.

Tennant showed at the 1939 New York World's Fair American art exhibition.

Tennant was a member of the National Sculpture Society and taught art at the Art Institute of Dallas and at adult evening education.

She died on December 19, 1971, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Dallas.

Work

• Mrs. George K. Meyer (ca. 1935), and Negro Head (1933), Dallas Museum of Art (1933)
• Tejas Warrior, Hall of State, Dallas, Texas
• Tejas Warrior, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina, a smaller version of the Dallas statue

The statue underwent extensive restoration in 1990 under Dallas' "Adopt-a-Monument program.

• Sea Horse Panels, Dallas Aquarium, 1936
• José Antonio Navarro Monument, Navarro County Courthouse, Corsicana, Texas, (1938)
• James Butler Bonham, Fannin County Courthouse, Bonham, Texas (1936)
• USPO Electra, Texas "Oil," "Cattle," and "Wheat" (1940)

She also has works at:

• Hockaday School, Dallas
• Southwest Medical College, Dallas
• Woman’s Club, Dallas