Julian Onderdonk's Masterwork Up For Auction

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The life of Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922) almost perfectly brackets the Impressionist movement in the United States. "The period from about 1885 to 1920 constitutes the years of [Impressionism's] ascendancy [in the United States] and the achievements and innovations of the principal American masters of the movement," writes William H. Gerdts, author of more than 25 books on American art.

Onderdonk studied under one of the movement's principal masters, William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), who provided Onderdonk with the tools to paint the south-central Texas landscape in the Impressionist style. It was Onderdonk, along with Frank Reaugh (1860-1945), who kept Texas in the national avant-garde mix until the former's untimely death.

By 1917, Onderdonk was already recognized as a master interpreter of the Texas landscape. That year, he completed "Bluebonnets at Sunrise." Two elements make the work particularly special, says Atlee Phillips, director of Texas Art at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions (HA.com).

In addition to being titled, signed, and dated on the back, Onderdonk added a unique handwritten note stating that because the original buyers took it home before the paint was dry, they needed to return it so he could "attend to" the varnishing. An addendum shows it was varnished later that year. For major collectors and scholars," Phillips points out, "this is a fascinating and invaluable glimpse into Onderdonk's process and clientele."

Equally compelling, Phillips adds, is the painting itself. "Bluebonnets at Sunrise has the quality of light and atmosphere found in Onderdonk's most beautiful depictions of bluebonnets blanketed in mist as dawn begins to glow on the horizon," Phillips says.

The work is featured in Heritage's Art of the American West & Texas Signature Auction scheduled for May 22, 2010, in Dallas. The 9-by-12-inch oil on artist's board, completed in 1917, is expected to fetch up to $120,000.

"This is the type of Onderdonk that rarely comes up for sale," Phillips says. "It is among his finest pieces and represents the best of both early Texas art and American Impressionism."

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