The Edgar B. Davis
Collection of Texas Art
"In A Bluebonnet Year" by Adrian Brewer
A Texas Treasure
One of the most significant collections of early 20th-century American painting in Texas — assembled through a remarkable act of philanthropy, and free to visit at 130 King William Street.
Works from the collection
Edgar B. Davis
1873 - 1951
Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Davis made his fortune in the Texas oil fields and became one of the great philanthropists of his era. He is said to have given away most of what he earned.
His wildflower competitions were motivated by a genuine love of Texas and a belief that art could build community — a belief SAALM continues to honor.
A competition that drew artists from across the nation
The Davis Collection had its origins in an extraordinary act of philanthropy. Edgar B. Davis — an eccentric Texas oil wildcatter and rancher — worked with the San Antonio Art League to organize the Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibitions of 1927, 1928, and 1929, offering substantial cash prizes — unprecedented for the time — for paintings of wildflowers and Texas rural life.
Word spread quickly. Artists traveled from New York, California, and across the country to paint in the Hill Country. Over three years, more than 300 works were exhibited at the Witte Museum and toured throughout Texas and New York. Each year, Davis purchased the prize-winning works and donated them to the Art League.
"The competitions helped cement San Antonio's reputation as an art center — a legacy that remains with the city today."
The result is a collection of surprising breadth and depth. Alongside prominent Texas artists are founding members of the Taos Society of Artists, Impressionists who painted alongside Monet at Giverny, and landscape painters from Ohio, California, and the American South. The collection is not what most visitors expect — and that is part of what makes it extraordinary.
As art historian William E. Reaves Jr. has written in his definitive study Texas Art and a Wildcatter's Dream, the Davis competitions "helped to make wildflower paintings one of the most sought-after subjects for traditionalist Texas collectors" — a legacy that endures to this day.
The Amy Shelton and V.H. McNutt Educational Gallery
The Amy Shelton and V.H. McNutt Educational Gallery for the Edgar B. Davis Collection of Texas Art opened in 2020, fulfilling a long-held dream of the Art League. The gallery displays approximately half the collection at any one time, rotating works to give each painting its moment in the light.
Admission is always free. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 3pm.
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San Antonio Art League and the Onderdonk Purchase Prize
In 1946, the Art League honored Julian Onderdonk -- San Antonio resident, artist, and art community supporter -- making the top cash prize in its annual juried exhibition his namesake. Every year since, the piece winning the Onderdonk prize has become a part of the Art League's permanent collection.