By Robert Jenkins Onderdonk
Located in San Antonio, TX
Robert Jenkins Onderdonk
(1852 - 1917)
San Antonio Artist
Image Size: 6 3/4 x 8
Frame Size: 13 x 15
Medium: Ceramic Tile
"Texas Landscape" signed
Biography
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...
Category
Impressionist 1890s Art
