THE BLUEBONNET GEM BY ‘THE FATHER OF TEXAS PAINTING’ WAS ON ITS WAY TO GOODWILL. NOW IT’S HEADED TO THE AUCTION BLOCK.
By Christina Rees
The painting was loaded into a trailer along with other donations and was headed to Goodwill. Once there, it would probably sit for ages and eventually, someone would notice its charismatic beauty and snap it up for a few dollars. Bluebonnet paintings – a mainstay of American West artists for a century – are not hard to come by, but this one was different. Whoever had packed the truck had either not noticed or not understood the signature “Julian Onderdonk” on the lower front and back of the canvas.
Julian Onderdonk ‘A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio,’ 1921. Oil on canvas. 12 x 16 inches (30.5 x 40.6 cm).
The woman on her way to a West Coast retirement, whose family had packed her things, called out for the painting: “It’s too pretty to surrender.” It had been a gift to her, sent to Illinois from an extended family member in Texas, to commemorate her birth in 1922; she had looked upon it all her life, and she wanted it on the wall of her final home. At the last minute the painting was retrieved from the packed trailer, and the woman continued to enjoy it in her remaining years. Then, her Washington-based daughter fondly displayed the painting in her own dining room. No one in the family knew a thing about the artist.
That is, until recently, when the daughter and her son did some digging and realized that the work was an original by “the father of Texas painting” – Julian Onderdonk himself – and that this painting was a particularly stellar example from the acclaimed artist in his absolute prime. Onderdonk, in fact, invented the entire category of bluebonnet painting, and no one has topped his oeuvre when it comes to capturing the state flower’s presence on the Texas landscape. The work, A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio, painted in 1921, is a highlight in Heritage’s June 29 Texas Art Signature® Auction.
June 29, 2024
Online: HA.com/8169
INQUIRIES
Atlee Phillips
214.409.1786
AtleeP@HA.com
“It was a family heirloom all these years,” says the original owner’s grandson. “But it was decoration. We hadn’t considered researching it. And now it should go to someone who will genuinely appreciate it.”
Julian Onderdonk ‘Blue Bonnets on Grey Day, North of San Antonio, Texas,’ 1916. Oil on canvas. 10 x 14 inches (25.4 x 35.6 cm).
That Onderdonk gem, replete with the artist’s hallmark extended vista, atmospheric haze and densely packed fields of bluebonnets, is joined in the auction by another triumph from the famed Texas Impressionist: his Blue Bonnets on Grey Day, North of San Antonio, Texas, from 1916. In this intimate masterpiece Onderdonk has situated the perspective from about halfway up a gentle slope. The sky is restive with gathering clouds, and individual flowers in the foreground glow in the overcast light. As your eye moves down the hill into the distance, the color disperses into Onderdonk’s ethereal soft purples, blues and grays. Like the painting mentioned above, it presents the artist at the height of his power.
The rest of the auction, tightly curated and yet stacked with Texas wonders, showcases the region’s artists at their best, whether the work is a century old or merely a decade or two, and proves the breathtaking range of their visions. From Frank Reaugh to David Bates, from Porfirio Salinas and Fred Darge to Nancy Lamb and Robyn O’Neil, the event is made up of works that inspire collectors of all types.
“Heritage’s Signature Texas Art auctions always include great works, but this one is really special,” says Atlee Phillips, Heritage’s Director of Texas Art. “There is not a bad painting among the 107 lots in this small but highly curated auction. I cannot wait for collectors to see everything.”
Frank Reaugh ‘On Pease River.’ Pastel on board. 5-3/8 x 12 inches (13.5 x 30.5 cm).
Very few artists are bestowed with a public honorific, and yet in this event the works of Onderdonk, “the father of Texas painting,” are joined by a handful of significant works from “the dean of Texas painters” Frank Reaugh. Reaugh, most celebrated for his plein air pastel portraits of the American West, Texas and herds of longhorn cattle during the turn of the last century, often rode out with cowboys to attend the bracing roundups. Reaugh’s On Pease River is a highlight of the June 29 auction. “Given its size and quality, On Pease River is an excellent example of Reaugh’s mastery of the ‘cattle country west of Fort Worth,’ as he referred to it,” says Michael Grauer, the eminent Reaugh scholar. The Pease, Wichita and the three forks of the Brazos River were favored painting sites for Reaugh, and this painting, depicting in the middle distance a dozen or so longhorns drinking from the river with the edge of a canyon shimmering in the deep distance, is a synthesis of the artist’s experiences in his beloved West Texas. Reaugh’s Palo Duro Canyon No. 1 is in the auction as well, featuring his seasoned-yet-effortless capture of the canyon’s relaxed and reassuring elements under an endless sky of pale Panhandle blue.
Everett Franklin Spruce ‘Giant Yucca Near Hot Spring,’ 1987-88. Acrylic on canvas. 36 x 39-3/4 inches (91.4 x 101.0 cm).
One thing collectors know is that artists collect artists, and that with their killer eye they usually land on the best. From the collection of acclaimed contemporary Texas artist Kelly Fearing comes a circa-1987 painting by Everett Franklin Spruce titled Giant Yucca Near Hot Spring. “This is from one of his most popular periods,” Phillips says. Spruce, who studied with Olin Travis and Thomas Stell at the Dallas Art Institute, entered the American consciousness in 1939 when the Museum of Modern Art acquired a Spruce painting; the work of the University of Texas at Austin faculty alum made its way into the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and many others across the United States and Texas. Spruce’s giant, jagged yucca in the foreground of the present work is electric with personality and dimension as its landscape recedes into mysterious peaks and valleys.
David Bates ‘Specks,’ 1990. Oil on canvas. 24 x 20 inches (61.0 x 50.8 cm).
Sharing spiritual DNA with Spruce is David Bates, with his assertive and defined brushwork, and Robyn O’Neil, with her surrealist cinematic landscapes dotted with curious figures. Both artists have work in this auction, which showcases a natural evolution of terrific figurative works by Texas talent. There are also strong fresh-to-market works by Porfirio Salinas, G. Harvey, Fred Darge, the surprising Seymour Fogel and the great sculptor Charles Umlauf.
“These are just a few examples from what we are expecting to be one of the best Texas Art auctions we have had in several years,” Phillips says. “Many of the best early Texas works have already found homes in private collections and museums. It’s rare to have so many amazing examples of early Texas Art that are completely fresh to the market. This is not an auction that collectors will want to miss.”
CHRISTINA REES is a staff writer at Intelligent Collector.