Olive Rush

American painter

Olive Rush (June 10, 1873 near Fairmount, Indiana – August 20, 1966 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) was a painter, illustrator, muralist, and an important pioneer in Native American art education. Her paintings are held in a number of private collections and museums, including: the Brooklyn Museum of New York City, the Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Rush was the fourth of Nixon and Louisa Rush's six children. The Rush family lived on a farm in Grant County, Indiana where they were members of the local Society of Friends.

Olive Rush studied at Earlham College, the art school associated with the Corcoran Gallery of Art and at the Art Students League before becoming an illustrator in New York. She was well known for her portraits and paintings of children and women, many of which were featured in magazines such as Woman's Home Companion and St. Nicholas. In 1904 she moved to Wilmington, Delaware, to study with Howard Pyle, and she stayed until 1910. She spent the next year in Europe studying British and French painters, and finished her art education at the Boston Museum School in 1912. In 1913 Rush returned to Europe with her friend, the watercolorist Alice Schille, visiting Belgium and France. In 1947, Earlham College gave her an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts. Her former studio on Canyon Road in Santa Fe is now the home to the Santa Fe Quaker Meeting, as well as having guest house facilities available on the site. Rush considered her major influences to be early Chinese art, Japanese art, and El Greco. She was also inspired by the colorful style of Hopi and other Puebloan artists of the 1930s and 1940s.

Murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the Treasury Department. The murals were intended to boost the morale of the American people from the effects of the Depression by depicting uplifting subjects. Almost 850 artists were commissioned to paint 1371 murals, most of which were installed in post offices, libraries, and other public buildings. 162 of the artists were women. The murals were funded as a part of the cost of the construction with 1% of the cost set aside for artistic enhancements. In Pawhuska, Oklahoma she completed an oil on canvas mural, Osage Treaties for the post office. In Florence, Colorado she painted Antelope for the post office. Lastly, she completed two frescos, Cotton Industry and Farming and Natural History of Plant and Animal Life for the Foster Hall Biology Building at New Mexico State University. Also, her mural for the Maisel's Trading Post on Central in Albuquerque is still in place. She taught mural painting to students at the Santa Fe Indian School,

During Rush’s lifetime, her paintings were acquired by numerous museums and many private collectors. One of her most famous paintings, Girl on Turquoise Horse, was purchased by Lou Hoover, wife of President Herbert Hoover. Some of her lesser known works are held by her closest living relatives, the Rush and Beasley family, in various parts of Indiana, the Carolinas and the West Coast, as well as Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico.