The Father of Texas Painting (June 8, 2025)
by Scott Sosebee
If you attend any Texas art show, walk into almost any gallery in Texas, or look on the walls of a good number of Texan homes, you will quite likely find a painting of a field of bluebonnets, or a scene of an old farmhouse surrounded by live oaks or mesquites. It is a ubiquitous style of painting in the state, and one that has remained popular for over a century. Like everything else, such an artistic interpretation has an origin, and in this case, the origin is Julian Onderdonk, who has become known as the “Father of Texas Painting.” Onderdonk painted mostly landscapes in the early twentieth century and was considered a part of the Impressionist Movement. Impressionism was born in France, and at the time, critics considered it a radical form of art. Impressionists painted in freely brushed colors with no lines or structures, and included accurate depictions of light, which shocked academically trained painters at the time. They also used vivid colors, which in Onderdonk’s works were often bright fields of bluebonnets and other flowers.
Born in San Antonio in 1882 to Robert Jenkins and Emily Gould Onderdonk, Julian demonstrated an innate talent for art when he became an avid sketcher of the landscapes of his South Texas home. The common assumption would be that parents actively encourage their child’s talent, but that was not the case in the Onderdonk household, not due to a lack of love for art, but instead perhaps a knowledge of the reality of the life of an artist. Robert Jenkins Onderdonk was also an artist and thus keenly aware of the financial struggles contained within the life of a painter. He refused to allow young Julian to have formal lessons, and even went so far as to scold him when he began to draw. But Julian persisted, and eventually relented and allowed Julian to train under prominent artist Verner Moore White. Onderdonk excelled, and after pleasing his father and attending West Texas Military Academy in San Antonio—he graduated in 1901—Julian announced that he was ready to pursue art as a career.
Robert Onderdonk tried one last time to dissuade his son from such a path, but Julian insisted. The elder Onderdonk arranged for Julian to meet G. Bedell Moore, a wealthy patron of the arts, who agreed to finance Julian’s training in New York under renowned Impressionist William Merritt Chase, who had also trained Robert Onderdonk. Julian remained in New York for three years learning from Chase, and then struck out on his own as an en plein air artist in New York. En plein air is the act of literally “painting outside,” and in the early twentieth century, New York City (as well as Paris) was filled with artists seated under their omnipresent wide umbrellas painting landscapes and street portraits. Many artists meant much competition, and it did not take long for Onderdonk to fulfill his father’s “prophesy:” Despite winning praise for some of his works, the now married father of two was flat broke with no prospects of alleviating his condition. Chastened by his experiences, in 1906 Julian Onderdonk and his family returned to his home state.
Onderdonk took a job with the Dallas State Fair, organizing exhibits for the fairgrounds and the annual event. The salary was meager, but it allowed him time to hone his craft. After three years in Dallas, he returned to San Antonio and found his inspiration in the rural landscapes of his native home; his most favored subject was fields of Texas bluebonnets. His new interpretation also brought him some financial success in the 1910s. He had emerged as Texas’ most celebrated artist, but at the height of his success, he died of a sudden illness, just barely forty years old. As with so many artists, the value and critical success of his paintings soared after his death; his final paintings, Dawn in the Hills and Autumn Tapestry, are now considered masterpieces and are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, if you have one of those prints of bluebonnets in your home, check it as it very well may be a reproduction of a Julian Onderdonk. And if you happen to have an original, well, you may have new reasons to sing the praises of the “Father of Texas Painting.”
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.