Frank Reaugh: An Inventory of His Art Collection at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: Reaugh, Frank, 1860-1945 Title: Frank Reaugh Art Collection Dates: 1880-1937 (bulk undated) Extent: 217 artworks Abstract: The Frank Reaugh Art Collection, 1880-1937 (bulk undated), consists of 217 works of art by Reaugh, primarily pastel drawings of landscapes and cattle in the American Southwest. The works span the duration of his career from his early field sketches and portraits to his later large-scale works. Also included are ink and graphite drawings, a watercolor, and oil paintings; his original framing materials; and two portraits of Reaugh. Call Number: Art Collection AR-00217 Language: English Note: The project to digitize and catalog the Frank Reaugh Art Collection was made possible with support from IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) and TSLAC (Texas State Library and Archives Commission). Access: Open for research. Please note that a minimum of 24 hours notice is required to pull art materials to the Ransom Center's Reading and Viewing Room. Some materials may be restricted from viewing. To make an appointment or to reserve art materials, please contact the Center's staff at [email protected] Digital images from this collection are available on the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections website. Administrative Information Acquisition: Gift to The University of Texas at Austin, 1937 Processed by: Megan Dirickson, 2013 Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center
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Frank Reaugh:
An Inventory of His Art Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
Descriptive Summary
Creator: Reaugh, Frank, 1860-1945
Title: Frank Reaugh Art Collection
Dates: 1880-1937 (bulk undated)
Extent: 217 artworks
Abstract: The Frank Reaugh Art Collection, 1880-1937 (bulk undated),consists of 217 works of art by Reaugh, primarily pastel drawings oflandscapes and cattle in the American Southwest. The works span theduration of his career from his early field sketches and portraits to hislater large-scale works. Also included are ink and graphite drawings,a watercolor, and oil paintings; his original framing materials; andtwo portraits of Reaugh.
Call Number: Art Collection AR-00217
Language: English
Note: The project to digitize and catalog the Frank Reaugh Art Collectionwas made possible with support from IMLS (Institute of Museum andLibrary Services) and TSLAC (Texas State Library and ArchivesCommission).
Access: Open for research. Please note that a minimum of 24 hours notice isrequired to pull art materials to the Ransom Center's Reading andViewing Room. Some materials may be restricted from viewing. Tomake an appointment or to reserve art materials, please contact theCenter's staff at [email protected] Digital images from thiscollection are available on the Harry Ransom Center DigitalCollections website.
Administrative Information
Acquisition: Gift to The University of Texas at Austin, 1937
Processed by: Megan Dirickson, 2013
Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center
Charles Franklin Reaugh, more commonly known as Frank Reaugh, was born December29, 1860, near Jacksonville, Illinois, to George Washington Reaugh and ClarindaMorton Spilman. At the age of 15, Reaugh and his family moved by covered wagon toTerrell, Texas, thirty miles east of Dallas, where they established a small farm. With anearly interest in drawing and encouragement from his mother, Reaugh was inspired todraw the open Texas landscape and the many motifs it had to offer. Influenced by blackand white engravings and reproductions of works by the European masters, which hesaw in books and magazines, Reaugh created many of his early sketches in monochrome.His focus on cattle resulted from first-hand observations of long-horned steers grazing inpastures and the family’s two oxen, Tom and Jerry. Reaugh further broadened hisknowledge and sharpened his drawing skills of these subjects by studying large animalanatomy books.
In the early 1880s, Reaugh met cattlemen and “freegrassers”—who marketed and fedcattle from the open range, as opposed to a fenced property—Frank and Romie Houston,who allowed Reaugh to join them on cattle round-ups. Pastel sketches and studies, someof which he later used to create the series “Twenty-Four Hours with the Herd,” weremade while on horseback or riding in a wagon. Between 1884 and 1889, Reaughreceived formal training from the School of Fine Arts in St. Louis and from the JulianSchool in Paris. This training enabled Reaugh to establish and teach art classes in Terrelland to begin marketing his work in the region.
In 1890, Reaugh moved with his parents to Oak Cliff, Texas, where in 1903 he and hisfather built a metal studio, nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” behind the family home. By1906, students were traveling west on sketching trips with Reaugh. These excursions,made first by horse, mule and wagon, and then later by automobile, became annualevents. Reaugh’s custom-built, open-air Ford touring bus, nicknamed “Cicada,” made itsfirst trip west in 1920 and continued to be employed for almost two decades. In 1929,Reaugh built a new studio and residence, which he named “El Sibil,” in Oak Cliff. Oftenacknowledged as the “Dean of Texas Artists,” Reaugh continued to teach and to givelectures on art throughout his career at his Oak Cliff studio as well as at many regionalschools including Baylor University and The University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to being an accomplished artist and teacher, Reaugh formulated andmarketed his own brand of pastels, which were color-keyed to native flora, and inventedand patented a lap easel and an industrial rotary pump. Reaugh died in Dallas, Texas, onMay 6, 1945.
Sources:
Reaugh, Frank. Biographical. Privately published in pamphlet form in Dallas, Tex.,December 1936.
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Reaugh, Frank, 1860-1945 Art Collection AR-00217
Reaugh, Frank. Paintings of the Southwest: Notes by the Painter. Dallas, Tex.:Wilkinson Printing Company, 1937.
Reitz, Robert, and Gardner Smith. In Considerable Style: The Sketch Trips of FrankReaugh. Stephenville, Tex.: Moccasin Rock Press, 2003.
Wittenbach, Stefanie. "Reaugh, Charles Franklin," Handbook of Texas Online. TexasState Historical Association. Accessed July 1, 2013. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook
Scope and Contents
The Frank Reaugh Art Collection is comprised of 217 works of art including landscapedrawings and paintings, portrait drawings and paintings, studies of flora and fauna, andmonochrome works. Though the majority of works are undated, they were created overthe course of Reaugh's career from 1880 to 1937. The bulk of the collection was createdusing pastels, but there are also charcoal, ink, and graphite drawings, oil paintings, and awatercolor painting by Reaugh, as well as portraits of Reaugh created by other artists.The collection is organized into three series: I. Works by Reaugh, 1880-1937, undated;II. Works by Other Artists, 1937, undated; and III. Associated Materials, 1880-1937,undated. Each series is arranged by accession number, and titles transcribed from theitems appear in single quotes. When possible, dates were taken from the works. Otherdates come from an earlier inventory of the collection.
The first series, Works by Reaugh, comprises the bulk of the collection. The works spanReaugh's career and represent his endeavor to capture the untamed and uncivilizedlandscapes of the Southwest. His primary focus was on the wild cattle, especially thelong-horned steer, with the cowboy portrayed only as a secondary subject. In addition toTexas, Reaugh sketched in New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Montana, and Wyoming.His landscape drawings and paintings, largely in pastel, portray land-features includingmesas, mountains, valleys and bodies of water, as well as the flora and fauna of theregion. Many of these works focus on various aspects of cattle herding and ranching, aswell as the effects of moonlight, sunrise, sunset, and weather on the plains. Thecollection also includes botanical illustrations, some of which feature trees and flowers,while others include these plants as part of greater landscapes. Additional subjectsinclude studies of birds, cattle, and other mammals native to the region; forts, ruins, andother buildings; and pueblos and indigenous peoples. Also present are figure studies andportraits in oil, including a portrait of his student Lucretia Donnell Coke.
The second series, Works by Other Artists, consists of two portraits of Reaugh, one ofwhich is by the American painter Gasper J. Ruffolo. The other is by Ruth Underwood, aformer student of Reaugh's.
The final series, Associated Materials, is largely comprised of original backings, mats,and other framing materials, inscriptions from Reaugh's artworks, and exhibition labelsthat were separated from the artworks for housing and storage purposes. Not all artworkshave associated materials and many backings and exhibition labels remain with theartworks. The series also includes a fragment of a printed poem which was notassociated with any particular artwork.
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Reaugh, Frank, 1860-1945 Art Collection AR-00217
Related Material
The Harry Ransom Center has several other related items and collections. Also withinthe Art Collection are a reproduction of Reaugh’s Classification Chart of Animals ofNorth America and reproductions of two photographs. One photograph is a studioportrait of the artist with his palette taken in 1916; the other is a group portrait of Reaughwith a group of his students and his truck “Cicada.” The Frank Reaugh Literary File inthe Photography Collection holds a vintage snapshot of the artist as an old man, seated ina rocking chair, with various canvases visible in the background. Other works related toReaugh can be found in the Center's Books and Periodicals Collection.
The University of Texas at Austin also holds the Frank Reaugh Papers which can befound at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
Separated Material
Index Terms
Subjects
Cattle
Cowboys
Plants
Prairies
Sunrises & Sunsets
West (U.S.)--Geography
Places
Texas
West (U.S.)
Document Types
Landscapes (Representations)--American
Oil paintings
Pastels (Visual works)
Portraits
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Reaugh, Frank, 1860-1945 Art Collection AR-00217
Studies (Visual works)
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Reaugh, Frank, 1860-1945 Art Collection AR-00217
Series I. Works by Reaugh, 1880-1937, undated
Accession Number: 74.69.1 'The Singing Shepherd of Acoma.' Undated. drawing:pastel on masonite; 101.3 x 51.0 x 0.5 cm.
LocationPaintingstorage
Accession Number: 74.69.2 'Morning.' Undated. drawing: pastel, mountedon canvas; 25.5 x 45.7 x 1.8 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.4 'Windy Day.' 1900. painting: oil on canvas; 40.7 x 61.4x 2.3 cm.
LocationFlat file
Accession Number: 74.69.5 Landscape featuring cattle and mesas. Undated.drawing: pastel; irregular sheet 12.5 x 21.7 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.6 'Black and White Steer.' 1937. drawing: pastel onmasonite; 19.0 x 31.2 x 0.5 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.7 'Gray Hill and Rain.' Undated. drawing: pastel onmasonite; 27.0 x 47.2 x 0.7 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.8 'Twilight...Rest.' Undated. drawing: pastel onillustration board; 40.5 x 81.0 x 0.7 cm.
LocationPaintingstorage
Accession Number: 74.69.9 Landscape featuring three cows. Undated. drawing:pastel on masonite; 25.8 x 45.5 x 0.5 cm.
LocationFlat file
Accession Number: 74.69.10 Landscape featuring a spotted steer. Undated.drawing: pastel; irregular sheet 12.6 x 22.2 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.11 'Cattle and Sand Dunes.' Undated. drawing:pastel; 13.0 x 22.8 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.12 'The Enchanted Mesa.' Undated. painting: oil oncanvas; 30.5 x 51.0 x 2.0 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.13 Landscape of plains and mesas during latesummer. Undated. drawing: pastel; 11.3 x 22.5 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.14 Landscape of plains with lavender mountains inbackground. Undated. drawing: pastel; 11.5 x 22.6 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.15 'Study for Brazos Valley.' Undated. drawing:pastel; irregular sheet 11.7 x 23.0 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.16 'Autumn Sun.' Undated. drawing: pastel;irregular sheet 11.0 x 22.5 cm.
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Reaugh, Frank, 1860-1945 Art Collection AR-00217
Accession Number: 74.69.17 'A Day in June.' Undated. drawing: pastel oncardboard; 25.5 x 51.0 x 0.5 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.18 'Craig in Quitaque.' Undated. drawing: pastel;irregular sheet 10.0 x 18.0 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.19 'Mesquite on F[illegible] -- study.' Undated.drawing: pastel on black paper; 10.0 x 20.3 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.20 'White Steer and Bluebonnets.' Undated.painting: oil on canvas, mounted on cardboard; 27.3 x 15.0 x 0.5 cm.
Accession Number: 74.69.102 Landscape featuring a white steer in theforeground and lavender hills in the background. Undated. drawing: pastel;10.2 x 17.7 cm.