Julian Onderdonk
was born in San
Antonio, Texas on July 30, 1882
was best known
for his impressionist landscapes and bluebonnet paintings and showed a
remarkable talent from his childhood.
He
received his early training from his father, Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (1852-1917)
and at the age of eighteen he moved to New York and studied at the Art
Students League, where he studied drawing under Kenyon Cox and landscape painting under William
Merritt Chase, Frank DuMond and Robert Henri, winning recognition and always
expressing individuality in his work. He remained studying and painting in New York for 9
years.
The work
of Julian Onderdonk is divided into several periods. His style changed somewhat
in his later years, but regardless of the period in which they were
done, all his pictures had "Roots deep in the soil of his native State".
The divine spark urged him to express his emotional reactions to nature
and fired him with an undying enthusiasm.
Onderdonk
married at an early age. Living in New York and sometimes working at his
art day and night to support his family.
While living in New York, he traveled to Dallas, Texas to help
organize The State Fair of Texas Annual Exhibitions which he continued
doing so for several years. He
returned to San Antonio in 1909 and painted only what he loved and
wanted to paint. The bigness of Texas with it's characteristic subjects;
Hillsides covered with bluebonnets & dusty roads, which captured
the atmospheric conditions of misty mornings in the bluebonnets with the
full character of the twisting native oak trees & headwaters of
different streams, where he found the colors wonderful in varying
lights. These are the subjects Julian Onderdonk loved and longed to put
on canvas.
Julian refused to follow his fathers vocation as a teacher, but
always gave his time and influence to art interests and activities at
the San Antonio Art League.
Julian found acclaim and financial success in 1911 with his bluebonnet
paintings developing his skill with fine impressionist colors. Many of
these bluebonnet canvases were painted en-plein-aire and true to nature.
In 1913 Julian was elected to the Salmagundi Club in New York City. In
the same year two of Julian's paintings were accepted at the National
Academy of Design for the Winter Exhibition 1913/1914 both south Texas
scenes "Springtime Afternoon" & "Road Through the Quarry". Following his
exhibit in New York, he exhibited at the San Antonio Art League and the
Fred Hummert Gallery in San Antonio. In 1917 he was elected to the
Allied Artists of America. Towards the end of his life, his 30x40
canvases were fetching $750 which was a large sum of money in 1922.
Mrs. Steinfeldt described the art of Julian Onderdonk's subjects as
follows; "Julian not only painted the Texas landscape, he interpreted
its many moods. In his own words he remarked "I think the greatest
artist is he who can in the simplest manner touch the whole heart of
nature and mankind". He painted much more than the hills, the trees and
the broad expansive field of wildflowers. He captured the essence of
nature in the morning mists, the heat of the shimmering sun on distant
clouds, the haze on hills in the twilight, the soft rain, the powdery
dust of a caliche road and the silvery mysticism of a moonlit night".
Julian
was a master of foregrounds as once stated by Frank Reaugh (1860-1945)
which is a very good and correct observation. His work in foregrounds
dramatically changed studying under William Merritt Chase at his Summer
school at Shinnecock, NY. Students there were taught to start working
from the foreground working back to the sky line.
Julian
Onderdonk died October 27, 1922, after a brief illness. At the time of
his death, five of his pictures were on the way to New York to be
exhibited at the Howard Young Galleries. He also had orders ahead for
$20,000 worth of work. (A tremendous amount for 1922).
Mrs. Drought,
President of the San Antonio Art League was in New York shortly after
his death and saw his picture "Dawn of the Hills" exhibited at The
National Academy of Design.
Julian's friend, Edward G.
Eisenlohr stated "We of the Texas art colony had a personal pride in
Julian's achievement. Aside from his own personal work, he has
contributed much toward the development of interest in art, through his
promoting the State Fair exhibits for a number of years. Julian
had not reached the height of his ability when death carried him away.
Onderdonk was a member
of Allied Artists of America; The Salmagundi Club of New York; San
Antonio Art League and the National Academy of Design.
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30x40 from our Family Collection
Sold in 1991
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Fine Arts of
Texas Inc.