Signed lower left: Julian Onderdonk

I. David Orr Collection, New York; By descent to the present owner.

Julian Onderdonk (American, 1882-1922) Sunny Mornings Southwest Texas, 1909 Oil on canvas 14 x 20 inches (35.6 x 50.8 cm) Signed lower left: Julian Onderdonk Bears inscription on the reverse: Sunny Mornings S.W. Texas / Julian Onderdonk 1909 PROVENANCE: I. David Orr Collection, New York; By descent to the present owner. The life and career of Julian Onderdonk -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. HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Lined canvas. Under UV exam, there appear to be areas of inpaint along the extreme edges, extending approx. 1/4 inches into the 'D; in Julian...erdonk. Small 1 inch area of retouching in the tree right of the chimney. Faint hairline craquelure. Framed Dimensions 18.5 X 24.25 Inches