"I like to be where the skies are
unstained by dust and smoke, where the
trees are untrimmed and where the wild
flowers grow. I like the brilliant
sunlight, and the far distance. I like
the opalescent color of the plains. It is
the beauty of the great Southwest as God
has made it that I love to paint."
Called the "Dean of Texas Painters," Frank Reaugh was born near Jacksonville , Illinois in 1860. In 1876 he and his family settled on a farm near Terrell , Texas , moving to Oak Cliff near Dallas in 1890. His mother taught him natural history and his taught him to work with his hands. Later, Frank Reaugh made his own picture frames and patented several inventions.
He copied reproductions from popular magazines and taught himself cattle and sheep anatomy. Reaugh also sketched longhorn cattle brought up from South Texas to fatten on the prairies nearby.
As early as 1883, Reaugh began sketching--often from the saddle--cattle drives and roundups in West Texas , near Wichita Falls . He later enlarged and composed his sketches in his studio, resulting in such paintings as The Monarch of the Plains, and what he considered his finest pure landscape in oil, Powder River . In the late 1930s, Reaugh also used his sketches and experience with the trail driving industry to create the multi-media performance, Twenty-Four Hours with the Herd , based on his series of seven paintings by the same title accompanied by music and a script.
Reaugh studied at the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts and at the Academie Julian in Paris . While in Europe he copied paintings in the Louvre and studied paintings in Belgium and Holland .
Among other places, Reaugh exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition (1893), the National Academy of Design (1896), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1896), the Art Institute of Chicago (1903), and at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at Saint Louis (1904). He also joined the Society of Western Artists, exhibiting with them all over the United States .
Reaugh continued his annual sketching trips to the Texas Plains until he was almost eighty. He had been taking students on trips since 1910, among whom were Alexandre Hogue and Florence McClung. Reaugh died in Dallas in 1945 and was buried at Terrell.
The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum at Canyon, Texas , rotates over 1,000 Reaugh works and is the repository for Reaugh materiel . This exhibition is drawn from the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum 's collection, with the exception of Margaret's Peak, lent courtesy The Hockshop Collection. Other institutions with Reaugh works include the Gilcrease Museum ; the University of Texas ; the Dallas Museum of Art; Dallas Historical Society; Dallas Public Library; the San Antonio Museum of Art; and the J. Evetts Haley History Center, Midland , Texas .
Michael R. Grauer, Curator of Art
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas
San Angelo Museum
of Fine Arts
One Love Street
San Angelo, Texas 76903
Fax: (325) 658 - 6800
Phone: (325) 653 -
3333
e-mail:
museum@samfa.org