Victoria Regional Museum Association: Nave Museum

A century ago, Royston Nave began his life-long passion to paint what he loved, perfecting his talent throughout his life. He sought the fellowship and support of his peers and collaborated with mentors as he found his own style, preserving his vision of beauty and truth on canvas. He was not a craftsman. He was an artist. His images invoke the senses to feel what he felt as he painted the land and people that he knew. His works wake up the imagination to ponder the beauty and mysteries of nature and to search for the uniqueness that is in each of us. He captured the sounds and smells of sea life, the swaying breezes moving through the wildflowers, and the beckoning expression in a young woman's face. He dedicated himself to his art, interpreting his world with a vitality and exuberance in color and form that made him one of Texas' most accomplished artistic talents.

Royston Nave was born in La Grange, Texas, on November 5, 1886, to Jack and Lou Scott Royston Nave. Besides Royston, the Naves had another son, Ty Nave.

Royston spent part of his boyhood in San Antonio and later moved with his family to Fort Worth.

His mother had artistic talent of her own. Some sources say that Royston’s mother also painted and gave her son his first instruction. She was a dress designer and seamstress in Fort Worth, making elegant clothes for the society women of the city. One of her customers, a Mrs. Ambler, encouraged Royston’s budding artistic talents by commissioning him to paint her portrait in 1910.

Critics later said of the Ambler portrait, “that the whole style and arrangement was somewhat in the manner of Sargent.” Italian-born American painter, John Singer Sargent, (1856-1925) was an internationally acclaimed portrait painter, who painted mostly commissioned works in Europe.

Royston's father, Jack Nave, reportedly died in 1899 in the Boer War, fought by Great Britain in South Africa with the two Boer (Afrikaner) republics.

His mother never remarried. She died in 1915 at the age of 55 years. In tribute to her, Royston created his only known sculpture, a full-size bust of his mother's head, for her gravesite. It is made of bronze and sits on a squared columnar base of gray granite. He had it inscribed rather plainly, "MOTHER, Lou Royston Nave; she lived in the 19th century."

Today the sculpture still marks her grave in the old cemetery in La Grange. In October 1993, it was included in a Save Outdoor Sculpture! Survey for the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property.

NEW YORK STUDIES

Coppini was a world-renowned Italian sculptor who created many public monuments, portrait statues and busts in the United States. He sculpted the statue of Jefferson Davis and other Confederate figures for the Confederate monument on the grounds of the Capitol in Austin, as well as the Littlefield Fountain Memorial at the University of Texas at Austin. He also created the seven bronze statues along the south mall of the university grounds. Before and after his years in New York, Coppini had a studio in San Antonio.

Robert Henri, an urban realist painter, was one of the most well known landscape painters and influential teachers of art in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

During his time in New York, Royston Nave had a studio and began to exhibit in group shows with other artists as he became established as an artist.

After his studies in New York, Royston traveled and painted all through the western portion of the United States. He painted portraits and landscapes of the sprawling beauty he found there. His landscapes had a romantic and impressionistic style. Nave also painted seascapes, Texas wildflowers, and still lifes, mostly in contemporary styles.

After traveling the West, Royston returned to Texas to paint his native state and settled in Fort Worth. However he did maintain a studio in New York for several years. At one point he came to Victoria to work with fellow artist, J. F. McCan, well known for his paintings and murals at the King Ranch. McCan's paintings hang in several San Antonio buildings.

During this period, Nave exhibited at the National Academy in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy, St. Louis Museum, and the International Show at Pittsburgh. He also exhibited in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Forth Worth with other Texas artists.

One of Nave’s best-known paintings hangs in the Legislative Reference Library in the Capitol building in Austin, Texas. This painting is the portrait of Mrs. Rebecca Jane Fisher, who is called the “Mother of Texas.” Mrs. Fisher guided the development of the Republic of Texas Museum on the Capitol grounds in Austin. As a very small child, the Comanche Indians captured Mrs. Fisher and her brother, when they killed her parents near Refugio in 1842. Texas Rangers rescued the two children.

Royston Nave continued his studies by spending six months in Europe contemplating the paintings in the famous galleries there.

MARRIAGE

It was in 1917 that Royston Nave married Emma McFaddin McCan. The wedding took place on November 28th in San Antonio at the Presbyterian Church.

Nave and his wife, Emma, left Victoria and returned to New York to live when he exhibited at the Milch Gallery, where he had a one-man exhibition. His work received critical acclaim in New York art circles. His one-man exhibitions were written about in the Art Review International in 1919, when the magazine described him as “a Texan who paints with a big, free stroke and an exuberance of color – a true spirit of the sweeping Southwest.” The Art Review also wrote, “He works with great sensitivity and seizes character firmly and uncompromisingly…. such an artist as we much need in these days of aesthetic shams and affectations.” The next year, the Art Review said, “He paints with a free hand and an open mind, attempts no tricks and exploits no 'isms.' An honest determination to render character, dominates his work and he was evidently born with an acute color sense.” The New York Times said, “At the Milch Galleries is the work of Royston Nave, a Texas artist who has studied under the most famous artists of his day.”

Soon after the exhibition at the Milch Galleries, Royston was asked to join the Salmagundi Club of New York, one of the oldest and most prestigious art clubs in America.

Over the past 130 years, the Salmagundi Club has been a gathering place for artists, providing a place for the member artists to exchange ideas. The club still exists today, presenting exhibitions to the public, as well as lectures, demonstrations, and sketch classes by artist members.

VICTORIA

Royston Nave and his wife returned to Victoria after their stay in New York. Royston painted extensively in and around the Victoria area during the remainder of his life. It was said that one seldom found him without his paints and easel during his wanderings. Although he had returned to Texas to live and paint, he did continue to exhibit in New York with the Eclectics, a group of artists including Sidney Dickenson, Philip Hall, George Luks and Eugene Higgins.

The Naves lived in Emma’s home on Glass Street in Victoria. Emma’s father, rancher James A. McFaddin, built this neoclassical revival style-home as a wedding gift to Emma upon her marriage to her first husband, James Ferdinand McCan. James and Emma’s marriage ended in divorce.

On February 26, 1931, Royston Nave suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 44, while visiting his brother, Ty Nave, in Harlingen, Texas. He was buried in Victoria at the Evergreen Cemetery.

This is the obituary news article that appeared in the Victoria Advocate newspaper after his death.

ROYSTON NAVE, about 47, well known Victoria artist, died suddenly about 12:30 o'clock this afternoon at Harlingen, where he went yesterday morning to visit his brother, Ty Nave. Mr. Nave was in his hotel room conversing with two friends when he complained of feeling badly and a doctor was summoned. He said he felt better after taking some medicine but as the physician was leaving the hotel he suffered a heart attack and before the doctor could return to his room he had expired. Mr. Nave was widely noted as a portrait painter and landscape artist and made his home in Fort Worth before locating in Victoria. He saw service in the World War as an Artillery officer. He is survived by his wife, formerly Miss EMMA McFADDIN, sister of the late A.M. McFADDIN.

The year after his death, Royston Nave’s widow, Mrs. Emma McFaddin McCan Nave, commissioned the building of a memorial to honor her late husband and to house his paintings. She hired the prominent San Antonio architect, Atlee B. Ayers, to design the neoclassical Greco-Roman style hall. Ayers was quite an illustrious architect, designing museums, commercial buildings, hotels, and mansions in San Antonio and as well as courthouses for Refugio, Cameron, Jim Wells, and Kleburg Counties. For a time, Atlee B. Ayers was the State Architect for Texas.

The Nave Memorial, 306 West Commercial, opened February 1933. In the 1960s, the Nave building was enlarged by the addition of the rear space now called DeTar Gallery. The front gallery was named the McFaddin Gallery. The Nave measured 1,510 square feet after the addition.

Mrs. Nave allowed the library of the Bronte Club to place its 7,000-volume library in the Nave for many years. When Victoria got a new library in October 1975, the Nave family gave the building to the City of Victoria to be used as a fine arts museum for the region.

The Victoria Regional Museum Association was formed in 1976 to oversee the museum. The city then leased the Nave to the Association. The mission of the Victoria Regional Museum Association is to reach out "to enrich, enlighten, and educate all people through visual art and cultural history." The Nave Museum owns the largest collection of Royston Nave paintings that exist. Royston Nave's works are exhibited at the Nave Museum every few years. The museum features traveling exhibits of both important contemporary work and artwork from the past that continues to be relevant to today's understanding and appreciation of art.

Royston Nave was a rising star in the art world, gaining in popularity and prominence, when he died too young at the age of forty-four. His life cut short deprived Texas of a gift that had yet to reach its ultimate artistic expression. However, his art remains.......a legacy that enriches and inspires those fortunate enough to view his works.