Onderdonk, Julian (1882-1922).

Atmospheric River Landscape by Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922) 13" x 17", Oil/Canvas, Signed Lower Left Est.: $6,000 - $8,000 Sold by John Moran Auctioneers for $13,800 on 10/27/2006

Julian Onderdonk was the son of the important Texas landscapist, Robert Onderdonk. He was the father’s pupil at age 16.

Sponsored by a Texas patron, he studied at the Art Students League in New York when he was 19, the pupil of Kenyon Cox, Frank DuMond, and Robert Henri. He also studied with William Merritt Chase on Long Island.

In 1902, having lost his Texas patron because he married, he asked $18 for 12 paintings at a Fifth Avenue dealer in New York City, and was glad to accept $14 for the lot.

In 1909, Julian Onderdonk returned to the family studio in San Antonio. He painted “the bigness of Texas, dusty roads, the blooming cactus or hillsides of blue lupine, rolling gulf clouds, aged liveoaks, and the gray brush in winter. His style changed somewhat in his later years.”

Onderdonk was heavy-set with dark eyes and hair, quiet and serious, “a strong personality.” When he died at 40, “five of his pictures were on the way to New York. He also had order ahead for $20,000 of work.”

He was known as the painter of the bluebonnet flowers of Texas.

Resource:
SAMUELS’ Encyclopedia of ARTISTS of THE AMERICAN WEST, Peggy and Harold Samuels, 1985, Castle Publishing