Heritage Auctions Sells Onderdonk's Hills
by Hector Cantu
Impressionist Considered Father Of Texas Painting
The name Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922) is synonymous with Texas landscape painting. "Onderdonk's works command pride of place among collectors of Texas art," the Dallas Museum of Art notes on its website. "His scenes spawned a host of imitators who to this day have never equaled the artist's style."
The museum last year hosted Bluebonnets and Beyond: Julian Onderdonk, American Impressionist. The exhibit celebrated the Impressionist painter who in his short life "transformed the Texas landscape, creating indelible images of the Lone Star State."
Onderdonk's In the Hills — Southwest Texas, an oil on canvas completed in 1912, realized $131,450 at Heritage Auctions' inaugural Art of the American West auction in January 2009. The sale broke the prior Heritage Auctions record for an Onderdonk, his Late Afternoon in the Bluebonnets, S.W. Texas, which realized $101,575 in Heritage Auctions' December 2007 Texas Art Auction.
"Many consider Onderdonk the father of Texas painting," says Atlee Phillips, Heritage Auctions' consignment director for Texas Art. "Because of his early death, at the age of 40, he has left behind a small body of work, which grows more important and coveted every year."
Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922)
In the Hills — Southwest Texas, 1912
Oil on canvas
16 x 24 in.
Sold: Heritage Auctions, January 2009, $131,450.
Heritage Auctions Magazine Spring 2009 Copyright ©2009 by Heritage Auctions, Inc.
