26 Texas Almanac 2014–2015 Corrida de la Sandía aka Dia De San Juan (The Watermelon Race) by Jean Louis Théodore Gentilz, 1848, oil on canvas. Texas History Captured by Artists Enamored with the Land and Its People By J.P. Bryan (1898–1994), Florence McClung (1894–1992), and Jamie Christy, PhD and Lloyd Goff (1917–1982) created unforget- table works in Texas. All brought to the place exas inspired some of the world’s the talent their profession demanded, but the finest artists. Their works, themati- land, the animals, and the people they beheld cally and stylistically varied and there provided them with profound inspiration T accomplished in a wide range of for the task at hand. mediums, capture the majesty and wonder of the American West in a vivid and diverse Not all of the artists who shaped their display that move the intellect and emotions of works with things Texan were born or died in the viewer. the state; but for a time most called it home, Artists such as Jean Louis Théodore Gentilz and for the remainder of their lives it remained (1819–1906), José Arpa y Perea (1858–1952), a place where their hearts lingered. French, Porfirio Salinas Jr. (1910–1973), Dawson Spanish, English, and German artists, among so Dawson-Watson (1864–1939), Robert Jenkins many others, became Texans by either choice Onderdonk (1852–1917), his son Robert or chance, and a large body of their work bears Julian Onderdonk (1882–1922), Karl Friedrich visual testimony to their enduring affection for Hermann Lungkwitz (1813–1891), Friedrich the region. Richard Petri (1824–1857), Charles “Frank” Many of Texas’s early artists flocked to Reaugh (1860–1945), Elisabet Ney (1833– San Antonio, which stood for years as the 1907), Stephen Seymour Thomas (1868–1956), last settlement before the endless expanse of Tom Lea (1907–2001), Alexandre Hogue unforgiving West Texas frontier. Born in Paris, History 27 France, Théodore Gentilz came to Texas in for Texas that led him to teach painting at St. 1844, to serve as a surveyor for Henri Castro’s Mary’s College in San Antonio for many years. colony after studying at the L’École Impériale The Spaniard José Arpa, another well- de Mathématique et de Dessin (The Imperial known European painter who lived in San School of Mathematics and Drawing). Despite Antonio for a time, expertly depicted the light his inclusion in Paris’s sophisticated inner and shadows of Texas in its bluebonnet-clad circle of artists and intellectuals, he painted landscapes as well as on the worn faces of its what he observed in the rugged Southwest inhabitants. His A Laborer (San Antonio, 1903) exactly as he saw it: the San Antonio missions, is a haunting Christ-like depiction of a lined, Mexican ranchers and cowboys riding through haggard local worker. town, village dances, street scenes, and the Arpa’s Texas art is timeless, but he made indigenous population. another important contribution as director of his Gentilz’s canvases captured old Tejano own art school in San Antonio, giving classes social and cultural heritage in works such as there, as well as outdoor instruction in the Corrida de la Sandía (San Antonio, 1848) hills of Bandera and serving as an inspiration and historically important events such as the for other would-be artists, such as the largely Battle of the Alamo. Although Gentilz painted self-taught Central-Texas landscapist, Porfirio with the technical precision of an engineer Salinas, who watched him sketch on the streets draftsman, his pieces also express the passion and in the fields of San Antonio. British born Daw- son Dawson-Watson, a landscape artist who could rival Van Gogh in terms of Post-Impressionist style, also chose Texas for a large body of his work. A child prodigy, the Royal Acad- emy in London accepted his painting at the age of sixteen, and he became one of the original members of the famous Impressionist colony in Giverny, France. Rather than the French countryside, the majority of his canvases captured the rugged terrain of the Hill Country and semi- arid Texas cacti in delicate colors in such paintings as Cotton Pickers (1927) and Flowers of Silk (1928). After living on three conti- nents, Dawson-Watson set up a permanent studio in San Antonio in 1927 and remained there until his death. Maryland native Rob- ert Jenkins Onderdonk A Laborer by José Arpa y Perea, 1903, oil on canvas. 28 Texas Almanac 2014–2015 Cotton Pickers by Dawson Dawson-Watson, 1927, oil on canvas. and his son, Robert Julian Onderdonk, found der of his life. His brother-in-law, Richard themselves drawn to the area as well, discover- Petri, drawn to the region’s German settlers ing the beauty of the bluebonnets in the Texas and Native Americans, rendered them in the Hill Country and painting them with dramatic midst of their daily lives. Petri’s Portrait of light, dark colors, and breathtaking preci- Susanna Queisser (1850) is a soulful, delicate sion. Perhaps the most interesting of Robert representation of a German child. Jenkins Onderdonk’s works, Market Plaza (San Another German, sculptor Elisabet Ney, Antonio, 1880) portrays the colorful hustle and well known for her strong statues of Stephen bustle and lively faces of San Antonio’s Market Austin and Sam Houston displayed in the Square. Capitol building in Austin, as well as for the Prussian and German artists also gathered likeness of Texas’s Confederate general Albert in Texas. Hermann Lungkwitz, painter and Sidney Johnston in the State Cemetery, estab- photographer, immigrated to the United States lished a studio in that city in the early 1890s. in 1850 and settled in the Texas Hill Country. Ney explained the move across the Atlantic In that region, he rendered the hard, rocky ter- saying she had spent her early years capturing rain in locations such as the Pedernales River, the great men of Europe and she had decided to combining the fine-line drawing and exactness go to Texas and sculpt the wild men there. of a photographer with the flair of a Romanti- At her studio in Austin, named Formosa, cist. His favorite subjects were Bear Mountain, she created incredible plaster and marble Enchanted Rock, and the Guadalupe, Ped- tributes to Texan revolutionaries and statesmen, ernales, Llano, and Colorado rivers, and his as well as majestic and imposing statues of portrayal of these places contain unforgettably mythical characters, such as Lady Macbeth and luminous rocks and bright, earthy greens and Prometheus. Fully embodying the Texan spirit blues. of independence and uniqueness, Ney refused Lungkwitz remained in Texas, teaching art, to take her husband’s name when they married, mostly in Austin and Galveston, for the remain- wore pants instead of skirts and dresses, and History 29 rode her horse astride in- was deeply connected. stead of side-saddle. She French, Spanish, Reaugh imparted remains one of Texas’s his love of Texas and most remarkable artists. English, and German proved an incredibly No discussion of gifted teacher to many Texas art would be com- artists, among so many students in the area. He plete without inclusion others, became Texans by set up a studio in Oak of Frank Reaugh, who Cliff (near Dallas) and, travelled from Illinois to either choice or chance, and by the mid-1890s had Texas with his family in a core group of serious a covered wagon at the a large body of their work students, known as the age of sixteen. bears visual testimony to “Dallas Nine,” who The Reaughs settled would remain with him in Terrell, near present- their enduring affection for the better part of day Dallas, in 1876, his life and became re- among one of the most for the region. nowned artists in their recognizable symbols of own right. Texas: the longhorn steer. Each year for nearly Reaugh, known affectionately as the “Rem- four decades, Reaugh loaded supplies and brandt of the Longhorn,” found inspiration in students into his custom-outfitted Model T the giant animals’ sturdiness, their ability to Ford and drove into the wilderness of the Texas adapt to the harshness of the Texas terrain, and plains and mountains, with a special interest in in their beauty as Texan survivors. the Big Bend region. From these trips and from In addition to his steer portraits, Reaugh his scores of sketchbooks, Reaugh produced painted the landscapes and long views of Texas hundreds of pastels of Texas landscapes and with pastels that truly captured the astounding Texas longhorns, which he considered to be the rainbow of colors that the terrain, the skies, and very symbol of the spirit of Texas: rugged, free, the vegetation presented to the inhabitant and and enduring. the viewer. His pastels of deep purple and pale His legacy, as he undoubtedly realized, magenta skies, of bleached beige and burnt- was in capturing the rapidly disappearing open orange hills and valleys, and of the silver-gray natural landscape of Texas. In his will, Reaugh of prairie grasses stand in testament to a land, stated that he wished his works “to be kept although an adopted one, with which Reaugh together if only for historical reasons. They Market Plaza by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, 1880, oil on canvas. 30 Texas Almanac 2014–2015 create the spirit of the time. They show the sky of cowboys and bullfights, is also celebrated for unsullied by smoke, and the broad opalescent his murals. They depict the American South- prairies not disfigured by wire fences or other west in stunning detail, from missionaries to signs of man.” cattle drives. Lea’s landscape mural, Southwest Perhaps Texas’s first truly celebrated native (1956), his gift to El Paso’s then-new public artist was Seymour Thomas.