Lucien Abrams

"In the Market Place" Algiers

Circa 1880

Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (1852 - 1917) San Antonio Artist Toluca, Mexico painting. Mexican Street Scene Image Size: 11 x 8 Frame Size: 15 x 12 Medium: Oil "Toluca, Mexico" Circa 1912 This piece was painted in 1912 when Robert & his wife went to visit his son who was working in Mexico City at that time. Robert Onderdonk is considered the "Dean" of Texas Painters. Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (1852 - 1917) Robert Jenkins Onderdonk is noted for his landscape and portrait paintings and also for his fine art teaching. Onderdonk was born in Catonsville, Maryland in 1852. He was the father of Robert Julian Onderdonk and Eleanor Rogers Onderdonk, also distinguished Texas artists. He received an academic education at the College of St. James, Catonsville, followed by studies at the National Academy of Design in 1872 under the instruction of Lemuel Everett Wilmarth. In 1875, Onderdonk attended Art Students League of New York and received instruction from Walter Shirlaw, James Carroll Beckwith and William Merritt Chase. Onderdonk moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1878 where he made a living teaching and selling his paintings. In 1889 he moved to Dallas, where he painted several portraits for the Huburt Portrait Company, followed by employment with the Art Students League of Dallas. In 1896, Onderdonk returned to San Antonio, Texas where he continued to paint until his death in 1917. Onderdonk was a member of the Allied Artists of America; Salmagundi Club, New York, and the San Antonio Art League. Exhibitions included the Annual Exhibition of the State Fair of Texas, Dallas; Dallas Art Association; Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis; Annual Texas Artists Exhibition, Fort Worth; Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, and the San Antonio Art League. Source: John and Deborah Powers, "Texas Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists" Robert Jenkins Onderdonk was born at St. Timothy's Hall, Catonsville Maryland, in 1852. He had a very thorough academic education and was always sketching family members, classmates and landscapes on the back of his school books. This sketching ethic was a process he subscribed to his entire life, always carrying a sketch book with him where ever he went, like a camera of today. Deciding to make art his profession, Robert moved to New York. He was not only a part of the academic beginnings of American art while studying in New York at the renowned National Academy of Design in 1870, but also one of the first student members, under the instruction of Lemuel Everett Wilmarth, at the Arts Students League. At the League, Robert also studied and honed his craft with other teachers including Walter Shirlaw, William Merritt Chase and James Carroll Beckwith. Some of his classmates included: George Inness, Jr., Frederick Stuart Church, John Henry Twachtman and a Texan from San Antonio named Edward Grenet. Robert was lured to Texas in 1879 by his childhood friend and rancher, William Negely and by stories he read in the tabloids of the day that touted Texas as the "Promised Land." Robert found the light, people and atmosphere of San Antonio agreeable and quickly settled in. He soon met a fellow Texas artist, Emily Gould, whom he married in 1881. They lived with her parents in a house called "Bella Vista" throughout their lives. The house was two miles north of town, had a wonderful view of the city and still stands today. Here Robert lived and taught art classes, painted portrait commissions, landscapes, still lifes and supported his family. Some of his students, who later became well-known Texas artists, were Mary Bonner, Seymour Thomas, Edward D. Eisenlohr, and Rolla Taylor. Robert worked hard and encouraged his students to do their best. Robert was part of and organized several of the first art clubs in Texas, further helping to develop an interest in Texas art in the State and nationwide, but also giving Texas and American artists places to display their works, win awards and achieve much needed recognition. He helped organize "The Brass Mug Club," a revered group of San Antonio artists that met on Sundays to enjoy friendship and go into the Texas Hill Country and paint. Members included Julian Onderdonk (Robert's son), José Arpa, Leo Cotton, Rolla Taylor, Tom Brown and Ernst Raba. In 1912, Robert and Julian were involved in the organization of the San Antonio Art League, the first important art organization in Texas with the mission to establish a free public gallery in San Antonio with exhibitions, lectures and classes in art. Later, larger exhibitions that needed more room due to the extreme popularity of the League and its awards were held at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. While living in Dallas from 1889 to 1895, and in order to obtain commissions, Robert organized the first Dallas art school, the Dallas Arts Students League, where he was president and instructor. In 1905, Robert was chosen to select artists from New York and Texas to be represented and judged at the Dallas Fair, which later became the State Fair of Texas. In 1901, Robert was commissioned by well-known Texas historian and writer, James T. DeShields, to paint a large historic painting of the Alamo battle. He used his family, friends and fellow artists for this painting, including his son. Robert even put himself in the painting, as one of the Alamo Defenders, taking a mortal shot from the enemy and falling backwards. The painting took three years to complete. The Fall of The Alamo was first exhibited at the St. Louis Worlds Fair in 1904. Among Robert's important commissions were the illustrations he provided for feared Texas gunfighter John Wesley Hardin's autobiography, The Life of John Wesley Hardin, published in 1896. This was a courageous task by Onderdonk considering that Hardin, who had killed over forty men, was the fastest gun in the West, East, North or South. When Robert Jenkins Onderdonk died in 1917 at the age of sixty-five at his home in San Antonio, he was known as the dean of Texas artists. His contributions to Texas art and the early artists of Texas were well-known and well-respected. Written by Peter C. Rainone, as published in American Art Review, June 2008 Robert Onderdonk was educated at the College of St. James in Maryland where his father was headmaster. At 20, he studied for two years at the National Academy of Design, under Wilmarth, then at the Art Students League under Shirlaw and Beckwith. He was the private pupil of A H Warren, a tonalist painter known as "the Corot of America." In 1878, he concluded his art studies with William Merritt Chase. To earn funds for a European trip he never made, Onderdonk was persuaded to establish his studio in San Antonio in 1878. By 1881 he was married, living near Pedro Spring, and taking the mule car to his studio in the city. He always carried with him a wood panel such as the top of a cigar box so he could paint small scenes. For his studio classes he charged $3 per month. He moved to Dallas in 1889, when offered $100 a month to teach. After his father-in-law died in 1896, he returned to San Antonio where he remained except for a trip to St. Louis in 1899 to try commercial painting on tile. Not ambitious, not robust, not careful in signing his paintings, he received commissions for hundreds of portraits without being able to earn a suitable living. Even his epic "Davy...

Randy Peyton (1958 - present) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 16 x 12 Frame Size: 19 x 15 Medium: Oil on Canvas " San Fernando Cathedral Moonlight" Biogra...

Jose Arpa (1858-1952) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 18 x 24 Frame Size: 21 x 27 Medium: Oil Circa 1920s "Brackenridge Park" San Antonio Texas. Biography Jose Arpa (1858-1952) Born in Carmona, Spain, José Arpa y Perea was known as "The Colorist Painter" of figures and landscapes, especially in Texas where he brought a fresh approach to San Antonio painting in his bright, sunlit local scenes. He was also an etcher, illustrator, and muralist as well as an art teacher, and he started and ended his career in Spain. His subjects include the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Please visit our 1stdibs storefront to view more of our fabulous goodies. He began his art study as the pupil of Eduardo Cano de la Pena at the Academy of Fine Arts in Seville and then spent six years in Rome followed by extensive travel through Africa and Europe. His reputation was solid enough that the Spanish government sent four of his paintings as part of the exhibition to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1894, as an illustrator, he accompanied a Spanish army expedition to Morocco where the Spanish had been defeated by Rifi tribesmen. In the mid-1890s, he was brought to Mexico City, reportedly by a special Mexican naval vessel, to head the Academy of Fine Arts, but declined the position once he understood the responsibilities. Instead he joined one of his Spanish schoolmates and went to his home in Puebla, Mexico, where his use of bright colors earned him the name of "Sunshine Man." He became close to the children of this man, and in 1903, accompanied them as a guardian to school in San Antonio. After twenty years of traveling in Spain, Mexico, the Southwest, and South America, Arpa settled in 1923 in San Antonio, Texas, where he became Director of the San Antonio Art School and painted bright, sun-filled landscapes. He taught landscape and portrait painting and was exceedingly prolific, and several San Antonio collectors accumulated large numbers of his works. Among his close artist friends were Robert and Julian Onderdonk, Tom and Joe Brown, and Charles Simmang. They were members of a San Antonio group who painted together and called themselves the "Brass Mug...

Randy Peyton (1958 - present) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 24 x18 Frame Size: 25x19 Medium: Oil on Canvas over newsprint Dated 2004 "The Tower Life Bui...

Arthur George Collins American, b.1866 Biskra Algeria Oil on canvas Signed and dated Biskra, 1893 26 ½ by 32 ½ in. W/frame 32 ½ by 38 ½ in. Arthur studied at the Julien Academy, P...

Alice R. Comins American, 1861-1943 The Valley, York Maine Oil on canvas 20 by 26 in. W/frame 27 by 33 in. Signed lower right and dated 1913 & titled on r...

Henry Dele Coeuillerie American, 1864-1932 The Three Kings Oil on canvas Signed & dated lower right 30 by 36 in. W/frame 35 ½ by 41 ½ in. Provenance...

George Loring Brown American, 1814-1889 A Coastal View Signed and dated 1878 Oil on canvas 22 by 36 in W/frame 30 by 44 in. Often referred to as “Claude...