Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 3

Julian Onderdonk
"A Glowing Day South West Texas" Date: 1910. Exquisite Sky in this Texas piece

Dated 1910

About the Item

Julian Onderdonk (1882 - 1922) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 6 x 9 Frame Size: 10.75 x 13.75 Medium: Oil Dated 1910 "A Glowing Sky" SW Texas Julian Onderdonk (1882 - 1922) Known as the "Bluebonnet Painter", Robert Julian Onderdonk was a Texan who spent his summers in New York City and the remainder of the year in San Antonio. He earned his title from the many wildflower paintings he did of the flowering fields near his hometown. He was the son and art student of artist Robert Jenkins Onderdonk and the brother of Eleanor Onderdonk, also a prominent Texas painter, sculptor, and art administrator. In 1901, when he was nineteen, he went to New York and enrolled at the Art Students League and became a student of Kenyon Cox, Robert Henri, and Frank DuMond. He also studied with William Merritt Chase at Chase's summer school at Shinnecock on Long Island and the New York School of Art, and Chase had a continuing influence on his work. Ever in need of money to support his love of painting, Onderdonk took a temporary position in 1906 with the Dallas State Fair Association to put on an art exhibit, and three years later he took a job with them that lasted until until his premature death in 1922 at age forty. Onderdonk married in 1902, and when he returned to Texas in 1909, the New York art critics had become aware of him. Onderdonk would maintain a foothold in the art world there because his employment by the Dallas State Fair Association required him to return on a yearly basis to New York City. Even though the artist had never been a member, the National Academy of Design in New York City took the rather extraordinary step, upon his death, of exhibiting Onderdonk's last painting, "Dawn in the Hills". A fund-raising campaign in San Antonio purchased the painting for the city's art museum. Robert Julian Onderdonk was a member of the Allied Artists of America, Salmagundi Club and San Antonio Art League. His paintings are in the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Fort Worth Art Association, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, San Antonio Museum Association and Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas "A Texas Painter Worked Under the Radar in New York," By Eve M. Kahn, March 6, 2014, The New York Times Onderdonk, a San Antonio native who died of an intestinal ailment in 1922, at 40, is best known for painting swaths of Texas bluebonnets. Those canvases can bring more than $500,000 each, while his New York scenes usually end up in the five-figure range. Onderdonk’s parents were painters in San Antonio, and in 1901, when he was a teenager, they sent him to New York for training. Through 1909, he lived in various Manhattan apartments and Staten Island houses. He then returned to Texas, but continued to spend months at a time in New York. In 1902 he had married a Manhattan teenage neighbor, Gertrude Shipman. While she focused on raising their daughter, Adrienne, and worrying about their strained finances, “he created more than 600 works of art, often producing a painting or two a day,” Eyewitnesses recorded his prolific pace in New York, but Onderdonk works bearing those dates rarely turn up. The puzzling gap in his productivity is explained in family correspondence that the Bakers uncovered: The artist admits that he was signing pieces with pseudonyms. He mostly used Chas. Turner and Chase Turner and occasionally resorted to Elbert H. Turner and Roberto Vasquez. Julian Onderdonk was the son of the important Texas landscapist, Robert Onderdonk. He was the father's pupil at age 16. Sponsored by a Texas patron, he studied at the Art Students League in New York when he was 19, the pupil of Kenyon Cox, Frank DuMond, and Robert Henri. He also studied with William Merritt Chase on Long Island. In 1902, having lost his Texas patron because he married, he asked $18 for 12 paintings at a Fifth Avenue dealer in New York City, and was glad to accept $14 for the lot. In 1909, Julian Onderdonk returned to the family studio in San Antonio. He painted "the bigness of Texas, dusty roads, the blooming cactus or hillsides of blue lupine, rolling gulf clouds, aged liveoaks, and the gray brush in winter. His style changed somewhat in his later years." Onderdonk was heavy-set with dark eyes and hair, quiet and serious, "a strong personality." When he died at 40, "five of his pictures were on the way to New York. He also had orders ahead for $20,000 of work." He was known as the painter of the bluebonnet flowers of Texas.
  • Creator:
    Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922, American)
  • Creation Year:
    Dated 1910
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 6 in (15.24 cm)Width: 9 in (22.86 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    Image Size: 6 x 9 Frame Size: 11 x 14Price: $55,000
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Framing:
    Frame Included
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
    Spectacular small Texas Scene by Julian Onderdonk. Please check our 1stdibs storefront for additional goodies.
  • Gallery Location:
    San Antonio, TX
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU769313907562

More From This Seller

View All
"COREOPSIS & DAGGERS" TEXAS HILL COUNTRY WILDFLOWERS 44 X 56 FRAMED WOW!
By Robert Harrison
Located in San Antonio, TX
Robert Harrison (Born 1949) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 36 x 48 Frame Size: 44 x 56 Medium: Oil on canvas Dated 1999 "Coreopsis & Daggers" Texas Hill Country. Wildflowers Biograph...
Category

1990s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

"COREOPSIS & CACTI" TEXAS HILL COUNTRY WILDFLOWERS 40 X 50 FRAMED BORN 1949
By Robert Harrison
Located in San Antonio, TX
Robert Harrison (Born 1949) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 30 x 40 Frame Size: 40 X 50 Medium: Oil on Canvas "Coreopsis and Cacti" Texas Hill Country Biography Robert Harrison (Born ...
Category

20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

"FIREWORKS OVER MISSION SAN JOSE" SAN ANTONIO TEXAS
By Randy Peyton
Located in San Antonio, TX
Randy Peyton (1958 - present) San Antonio Artist Size: 20 x 24 Frame: 28 x 32 Medium: Oil on Canvas 2004 "Fireworks over Mission San Jose" Biography Randy Peyton (1958 - present) Tex...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

"BARTON CREEK" AUSTIN
By Morris Walton Leader
Located in San Antonio, TX
Walton Leader (1877-1966) Austin Artist Image Size: 21 X 24 Frame Size: 26 X 30 Medium: Oil 1930s / 1940s Barton Creek Biography Walton Leader (1877-1966) Morris Walton Leader was born in Marshall, Texas in 1877. He died in Austin, Texas where he lived since a young boy. He studied with San Antonio Artists Harry Anthony DeYoung...
Category

20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

"ABSTRACT CHURCH TOWER"
By Lamar Briggs
Located in San Antonio, TX
Lamar Briggs (1935-2015) Houston Artist Image Size: 14 x 11 Frame Size: 22.75 x 19.75 Medium: Oil "Church Tower" Lamar Briggs (1935-2015) Following is an obituary of the artist, publ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

"SPRINGTIME BLUES" TEXAS BLUEBONNET TEXAS HILL COUNTRY
By CLIFF CAVIN
Located in San Antonio, TX
Cliff Cavin Texas Artist Size: 24 x 30 Frame: 30.5 x 36.5 Medium: Oil 2022 "Springtime Blues" Biography Cliff Cavin Cliff Cavin, a native of San Antonio, Texas, is a landscape artist...
Category

2010s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

Before the Trees Become Green, Oil Painting
By Suren Nersisyan
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Bare trees stand proudly under a bright autumn sun, their branches reaching skyward. The mountains in the background, retaining a scattering of greens, provide ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist More Art

Materials

Oil

Nocturnal Garden Landscape -- West Side Cottage
By Kristy Simmons
Located in Soquel, CA
A nocturnal landscape of a cottage shrouded in foliage by Kristy Simmons (American, 20th century). Signed, stretcher bar, on verso. Unframed. Image, 19.38"H x 23.88"W. Painted during...
Category

1990s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Dynamic Clouds and Fields - Alabama Landscape
By Judith Fields
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful dynamic clouds above minimal landscape by Judith Fields (American, 20th Century). Signed and dated by artist upper left corner "Judith Fields '99". Presented in a rustic whitewashed frame. Image, 11.88"H x 8.75"W. Judith Fields is an award-winning artist in encaustics, mixed media and watercolor. She is primarily a self-taught artist, augmenting her personal study with various professional workshops around the country. Having worked in many media, including watercolor and acrylics, she has become primarily an encaustic and mixed media artist. Judith works out of her home studio and exhibits at Huntsville Art League. She is a member of International Encaustics Artists...
Category

1990s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Cardboard

1930's California Mountain Trail Landscape
By Sidney L. Brock
Located in Soquel, CA
A beautiful 1930's landscape titled "Trail into California Mountains" by Oklahoman artist Sidney Lorenzo Brock (American, 1869-1943). Presented in ...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Fall at the Estate Mid Century Landscape
By Eloisa Rodriguez Schwab
Located in Soquel, CA
Substantial and period oil painting of a vividly colored estate by listed artist Eloisa Schwab (American, 1894-1990). Signed "Eloisa Schwab" lower left, circa 1940. Unframed. Image, 20"H x 24"W. Born in Havana, Cuba. Schwab studied at the Academy Julian in Paris and the Art Students League in New York with George Bridgman and Kenneth Hayes Miller and exhibited extensively from the mid 1920s to 1960s at venues including the Society of Independent Artists, the Salons of America, and the Pennsylvania Art...
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Vintage Carmel Mission Landscape with Flowers
By Virginia Francesca Fry
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful landscape of a Carmel Mission with blooming flowers in the foreground by Virginia Francesca Fry (American, 1922-2012). Presented in a giltwood...
Category

1970s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All