Signed lower left: Julian Onderdonk

Oran Kirkpatrick; Estate of the above; David John Kirkpatrick, by descent from the above.

Julian Onderdonk (American, 1882-1922) Blue Bonnets on Grey Day, North of San Antonio, Texas, 1916 Oil on canvas 10 x 14 inches (25.4 x 35.6 cm) Signed lower left: Julian Onderdonk Titled on the stretcher bar: Blue Bonnets on Grey Day, North of San Antonio, Texas Signed and dated on the reverse: Julian Onderdonk 1916 PROVENANCE: Oran Kirkpatrick; Estate of the above; David John Kirkpatrick, by descent from the above. The life and career of Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922) -the best-known and recognized Texas Impressionist-almost perfectly brackets the rise, practice, and decline of Impressionist painting in the United States. As William H. Gerdts wrote, "The period from about 1885 to 1920 constitutes the years of [Impressionism's] ascendancy [in the United States]" and by 1920, "Impressionism, once a vital, modern force in American painting, had become both conventionalized and conservative in the light of newer developments in American art." In Texas, impressionist/plein air painters held sway until the late 1920s. When Julian was sixteen years old Robert J. Onderdonk, a founding member of the Art Student League of New York, officially became his first art teacher. He later received formal training while attending the Art Student League of New York, including taking classes from Chase and later attended Chase's summer art school at Shinnecock, New York. These formative influences helped Julian refine his work and further develop his own brand of American Impressionism, largely inspired by the beauty and grandeur of the Texas landscape. In 1909, after studying art in New York for eight years, Onderdonk returned to Texas. During the following thirteen years, before his tragic death in 1922, Julian would paint the Texas landscape with a skill and sensitivity few, if any, artists have equaled. Julian Onderdonk exhibited as a Texas artist in both the State Fair of Texas and Fort Worth's Texas-artists annuals. The nascent Dallas Art Association acquired his impressionist Springtime, a non-Texan subject, in 1904 only one year after the DAA first purchase of Childe Hassam's September Moonrise (Hassam was one of the most popular of the American Impressionists). Julian Onderdonk supposedly painted his first bluebonnet painting in 1911 and in 1912, the San Antonio Art League purchased his Morning in Spring (Brow of the Hill). San Antonio's Hummert Gallery gave Onderdonk one-man shows in 1914 and 1915 and the Dallas Art Association organized a solo exhibition of his paintings in 1916. His wildflower landscapes certainly inspired exhibitions of paintings of Texas wildflowers in San Antonio from 1927 to 1929, and ultimately gave rise to the ubiquitous "Bluebonnet School," prevalent in Texas even today. Onderdonk's Blue Bonnets on Grey Day, North of San Antonio, Texas, is an excellent example of his wildflower paintings. Much like Claude Monet's haystacks, Julian returns continuously to similar subjects but creates a different painting each time. This is evident in the other two landscapes by Julian Onderdonk being offered in this auction. Instead of the apprehension created by the darkening sky of Blue Bonnets on Grey Day, North of San Antonio, Texas, our other offering A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio, shows the Texas Hill Country in the early light of dawn with a lazy road winding into the background and A Golden Evening, Southwest Texas captures the achingly beautiful light and stark landscape of southwest Texas, both reminiscent of William Merritt Chase and other American impressionists. HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Unlined canvas. Scattered craquelure, most notable in the sky. Faint stretcher bar lines visible in raking light along top edge. Small 1/4 inch line of loss near the center of the composition. Under UV exam, there does not appear to be inpaint. Framed Dimensions 18 X 22 Inches