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Julian Onderdonk
" Summer Evening Southwest Texas " 1909 Texas Hill Country

Dated 1909

About the Item

Julian Onderdonk "Summer Evening S. W. Texas" Texas Hill Country (1882 - 1922) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 9 x 12 Frame Size: 15 x 18 Medium: Oil on panel Dated 1909 "Summer Evening S. W. 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 1909
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 15 in (38.1 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)Depth: 4 in (10.16 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Great brush work and rare scene by Julian Onderdonk. Original Frame is spectacular. Please check our 1stdibs storefront for additional goodies.
  • Gallery Location:
    San Antonio, TX
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU76934771222

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