Frank Reaugh
Encyclopedia
Charles Franklin Reaugh known as Frank Reagh, was an artist
, photographer, inventor, patron of the arts, and teacher
, who was called the "Dean of Texas
Painter
s". He devoted his career to the visual documentation in pastel
and paint, portraying the vast, still unsettled regions of the Great Plains
and the American Southwest. He was active in the Society of Western Artists
.
, and the former Clarinda Morton Spilman near Jacksonville
, the seat of Morgan County in west central Illinois
. Reaugh , moved with his family in 1876 to Terrell
in Kaufman County
east of Dallas
. The original family name was "Castelreaugh", but the Irish
family shortened it to "Reaugh" when they entered the United States
. The Reaughs initially made their living in Terrell by planting cotton
.
Reaugh developed his skills by copying the works of European masters from magazine
s and from illustrations of larger animals in anatomy
books. He studied the writings of naturalist
s Louis Agassiz
and John Burroughs
. In the early 1880s, he was invited by the cattlemen brothers Frank and Romie Houston to join them on cattle drives near Wichita Falls
in Wichita County
south of the Red River. The Houstons may have also provided financial support for Reaugh to further his artistic studies.
During the winter of 1884-1885, Reaugh studied at the School of Fine Arts in St. Louis
. From 1888 to 1889 he spent time at the Julien School of Art in Paris. Here he became interested in pastels at The Louvre museum
. Influenced by La Tour
and realist Anton Mauve
, he also studied Flemish
and Dutch
paintings in Belgium
and the Netherlands
, where he was inspired by the work of Paulus Potter
.
In 1890, the Reaughs moved from Terrell to the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. There, he and his father built a metal studio
building in the back yard called "The Iron Shed". Reaugh's works soon gained attention and national recognition through art exhibitions, including showing at the World's Fair
s in Chicago
(1893) and St. Louis (1904).
pastel sketches of the wild and colorful Texas Longhorn
, a subject he found challenging to illustrate. He once said that "no animal on earth has the beauty of the Texas steer."
Reaugh recalled that his mother had particularly encouraged him in the mastery of painting true-to-life forms: "I would sit in the midst of the herds to study their form, the workings of their muscles, their character and habits, their characteristic spots and markings, and their wonderfully rich and varied colors."
His leading paintings include:
Watering the Herd (1889)
The O Roundup (1894)
Grazing the Herd (1897)
The Approaching Herd (1902)
Twenty-Four Hours with the Herd (seven paintings, after 1930)
Texas Cattle (April 1933, his last major work)
ed folding lap easel
and compact carrying case for pastels. He created and marketed his own brand of pastels, each cast in a hexagonal shape to facilitate handling in the field. He patented a rotary pump and served on the board of directors for the Limacon Pump Company in Dallas.
in Dallas in 1897. He was a model artist and an influential arts educator. For many years, Reaugh led groups of art students on sketching expeditions throughout West Texas
, ranging into New Mexico
and Arizona
. His colleagues, Charles Peter Bock and Louis Oscar Griffith
, sometimes accompanied him on these trips. Many of his students, including Reveau Bassett, Florence McClung
, Harry Carnohan, Lucretia Donnell, John Douglass
, Olin Travis, Edward G. Eisenlohr, Lloyd Goff, Alexandre Hogue
, and Josephine Oliver, gained regional and national prominence. Several of these became part of the group known as the Dallas Nine. (Donnell, one of Reaugh's last students, has continued her mentor's tradition of taking students on sketching trips. ) Reaugh helped found the Dallas Art Society (later the Dallas Art Museum), The Frank Reaugh Art Club, and the Striginian Club. Frank Reaugh also championed the creation of the Dallas Museum of Art
in the early twentieth century.
in Austin
. Many of his other works are held by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
at West Texas A&M University
in Canyon
, where he shared the spotlight with fellow painter Harold Dow Bugbee
, a former curator
of the museum. Other Reaugh works are at the Southwest Collection/Special Library Collection at Texas Tech University
in Lubbock
, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
at the University of Texas at Austin
.
In February 1936, the aging Reaugh described his legacy in terms that his painting ". . . aside from any artistic merit that they may possess, will tell their story, and will be preserved because of historical value; for the steer and the cowboy have gone, the range has been fenced and plowed, and the beauty of the early days is but a memory."
Reaugh's interest in western art was less on the human side than in the animals and the natural environment
. In this respect, he was unlike Frederic Remington
or Charles M. Russell, whose works stressed confrontation between man and nature. Reaugh saw the ideal of pastoral harmony through the herds that meandered across the prairie.
With the help of Lucretia Donnell, Reaugh wrote an autobiography
entitled From Under the Mesquite
Tree: An Artist's LIfe on the Texas Plains. Historian
J. Evetts Haley
in 1960 published F. Reaugh: Man and Artist.
In Reaugh’s will
, dated May 16, 1940, filed before his death in Dallas County
, the painter noted, “The main part of my property is in pictures… These are largely of the great prairie
s of Texas and the longhorned cattle of fifty years ago . . . It is my wish that these pictures be kept together if only for historical reasons. They create the spirit of the time. They show the sky unsullied by smoke, and the broad opalescent prairies not disfigured by wire
fences or other signs of man."
Having given away most of his possessions, Reaugh died in poverty
in Dallas in 1945 at the age of eighty-four. He had vowed years earlier never to live anywhere outside of Texas. He is buried in Terrell Cemetery.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, photographer, inventor, patron of the arts, and teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, who was called the "Dean of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
Painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s". He devoted his career to the visual documentation in pastel
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
and paint, portraying the vast, still unsettled regions of the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
and the American Southwest. He was active in the Society of Western Artists
Society of Western Artists (1896-1914)
The Society of Western Artists was founded by William Forsyth, T. C. Steele, J. Ottis Adams, John Elwood Bundy and fourteen other artists in 1896. These impressionist painters were active primarily in the American Midwest. Other members included Frank J. Girardin, Frank Reaugh and Mathias Alten....
.
Early years as budding artist
Reaugh was born to George Washington Reaugh, a miner in the California gold rushCalifornia Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
, and the former Clarinda Morton Spilman near Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Illinois
Jacksonville is a city in Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,940 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Morgan County....
, the seat of Morgan County in west central Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Reaugh , moved with his family in 1876 to Terrell
Terrell, Texas
Terrell is a city in Kaufman County, Texas, United States, and a southeastern suburb of Dallas. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 13,606...
in Kaufman County
Kaufman County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 71,313 people, 24,367 households, and 19,225 families residing in the county. The population density was 91/sq mi . There were 26,133 housing units at an average density of 33/sq mi...
east of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
. The original family name was "Castelreaugh", but the Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
family shortened it to "Reaugh" when they entered the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The Reaughs initially made their living in Terrell by planting cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
.
Reaugh developed his skills by copying the works of European masters from magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s and from illustrations of larger animals in anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
books. He studied the writings of naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
s Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
and John Burroughs
John Burroughs
John Burroughs was an American naturalist and essayist important in the evolution of the U.S. conservation movement. According to biographers at the American Memory project at the Library of Congress,...
. In the early 1880s, he was invited by the cattlemen brothers Frank and Romie Houston to join them on cattle drives near Wichita Falls
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. According to the U.S. Census estimate of 2010,...
in Wichita County
Wichita County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 131,664 people, 48,441 households, and 32,891 families residing in the county. The population density was 210 people per square mile . There were 53,304 housing units at an average density of 85 per square mile...
south of the Red River. The Houstons may have also provided financial support for Reaugh to further his artistic studies.
During the winter of 1884-1885, Reaugh studied at the School of Fine Arts in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. From 1888 to 1889 he spent time at the Julien School of Art in Paris. Here he became interested in pastels at The Louvre museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
. Influenced by La Tour
Georges de La Tour
Georges de La Tour was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648...
and realist Anton Mauve
Anton Mauve
Anthonij Rudolf Mauve was a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He signed his paintings 'A. Mauve' or with a monogrammed 'A.M.'. He was a very significant early influence on his cousin-in-law Vincent van Gogh.Most of Mauve's work depicts people and animals in...
, he also studied Flemish
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
paintings in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, where he was inspired by the work of Paulus Potter
Paulus Potter
Paulus Potter was a Dutch painter, specialized in animals in landscapes, usually with a low point of view. Before Potter died of tuberculosis, 28-years old, he succeeded in producing about a hundred paintings, working continuously.-Life:Few details are known of Potter's life...
.
In 1890, the Reaughs moved from Terrell to the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. There, he and his father built a metal studio
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
building in the back yard called "The Iron Shed". Reaugh's works soon gained attention and national recognition through art exhibitions, including showing at the World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
s in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
(1893) and St. Louis (1904).
Prolific painter
Ultimately, Reaugh created more than seven thousand works. He concentrated on small plein airEn plein air
En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism...
pastel sketches of the wild and colorful Texas Longhorn
Texas longhorn (cattle)
The Texas Longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to tip to tip for steers and exceptional cows, and tip to tip for bulls. Horns can have a slight upward turn at their tips or even triple twist. Texas Longhorns are known for their diverse coloring...
, a subject he found challenging to illustrate. He once said that "no animal on earth has the beauty of the Texas steer."
Reaugh recalled that his mother had particularly encouraged him in the mastery of painting true-to-life forms: "I would sit in the midst of the herds to study their form, the workings of their muscles, their character and habits, their characteristic spots and markings, and their wonderfully rich and varied colors."
His leading paintings include:
Watering the Herd (1889)
The O Roundup (1894)
Grazing the Herd (1897)
The Approaching Herd (1902)
Twenty-Four Hours with the Herd (seven paintings, after 1930)
Texas Cattle (April 1933, his last major work)
Reaugh as inventor
Reaugh created his own art materials and tools, including a patentPatent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed folding lap easel
Easel
An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it.-Etymology:The word is an old Germanic synonym for donkey...
and compact carrying case for pastels. He created and marketed his own brand of pastels, each cast in a hexagonal shape to facilitate handling in the field. He patented a rotary pump and served on the board of directors for the Limacon Pump Company in Dallas.
Reaugh as art instructor
Reaugh established an art schoolArt school
Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
in Dallas in 1897. He was a model artist and an influential arts educator. For many years, Reaugh led groups of art students on sketching expeditions throughout West Texas
West Texas
West Texas is a vernacular term applied to a region in the southwestern quadrant of the United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....
, ranging into New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. His colleagues, Charles Peter Bock and Louis Oscar Griffith
Louis Oscar Griffith
Louis Oscar Griffith was an American painter known for his landscapes. He was an associate and friend of artist Frank Reaugh. In 1880, when he was five years of age, Griffith moved with his family from Indiana to Texas. In 1893, he began studying art in St. Louis. In 1895, he enrolled at the...
, sometimes accompanied him on these trips. Many of his students, including Reveau Bassett, Florence McClung
Florence McClung
Florence McClung , painter, printmaker, and art teacher, daughter of Charles W. and Minerva White, was born at St. Louis, Missouri, on July 12, 1894. She moved to Dallas in 1899 and lived there until her death...
, Harry Carnohan, Lucretia Donnell, John Douglass
John Douglass
John Douglass may refer to:*John Douglass , English Catholic vicar-apostolic*John J. Douglass, U.S. Representative*John Thomas Douglass, American composer and violinist*John W. Douglass, American military officer and politician-See also:...
, Olin Travis, Edward G. Eisenlohr, Lloyd Goff, Alexandre Hogue
Alexandre Hogue
Alexandre Hogue was an American artist active during the 1930s through the 1960s. He is a realist painter associated with the Dallas Nine; the majority of his works focus on Southwestern and Midwestern landscapes during the Dust Bowl.-Biography:Hogue was born on February 22, 1898 in Memphis,...
, and Josephine Oliver, gained regional and national prominence. Several of these became part of the group known as the Dallas Nine. (Donnell, one of Reaugh's last students, has continued her mentor's tradition of taking students on sketching trips. ) Reaugh helped found the Dallas Art Society (later the Dallas Art Museum), The Frank Reaugh Art Club, and the Striginian Club. Frank Reaugh also championed the creation of the Dallas Museum of Art
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art is a major art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, USA, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In 1984, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Arts District, Dallas, Texas...
in the early twentieth century.
Legacy
Reaugh was passionate about his adopted state. Several of his paintings are displayed at the Texas State CapitolTexas State Capitol
The Texas State Capitol is located in Austin, Texas, and is the fourth building to be the house of Texas government in Austin. It houses the chambers of the Texas Legislature and the office of the governor of Texas. It was designed originally during 1881 by architect Elijah E. Myers, and was...
in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. Many of his other works are held by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum is a history museum on the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, U.S.A., a small city south of Amarillo. The museum's contents are owned and controlled by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, while West Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M...
at West Texas A&M University
West Texas A&M University
West Texas A&M University , part of the Texas A&M University System, is a public university located in Canyon, Texas, a small city south of Amarillo. West Texas A&M opened on September 20, 1910...
in Canyon
Canyon, Texas
Canyon is a city in Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 12,875 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Randall County. It is the home of West Texas A&M University and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Palo Duro Canyon State Park is some twelve miles east of Canyon...
, where he shared the spotlight with fellow painter Harold Dow Bugbee
Harold Dow Bugbee
Harold Dow Bugbee was an American Western artist, illustrator, painter, and curator of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. Bugbee sought with considerable success to become the dominant artist of the Texas South Plains, as his role model, Charles M...
, a former curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
of the museum. Other Reaugh works are at the Southwest Collection/Special Library Collection at Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
in Lubbock
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more...
at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
.
In February 1936, the aging Reaugh described his legacy in terms that his painting ". . . aside from any artistic merit that they may possess, will tell their story, and will be preserved because of historical value; for the steer and the cowboy have gone, the range has been fenced and plowed, and the beauty of the early days is but a memory."
Reaugh's interest in western art was less on the human side than in the animals and the natural environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
. In this respect, he was unlike Frederic Remington
Frederic Remington
Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West, specifically concentrating on the last quarter of the 19th century American West and images of cowboys, American Indians, and the U. S...
or Charles M. Russell, whose works stressed confrontation between man and nature. Reaugh saw the ideal of pastoral harmony through the herds that meandered across the prairie.
With the help of Lucretia Donnell, Reaugh wrote an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
entitled From Under the Mesquite
Mesquite
Mesquite is a leguminous plant of the Prosopis genus found in northern Mexico through the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Deserts, and up into the Southwestern United States as far north as southern Kansas, west to the Colorado Desert in California,and east to the eastern fifth of Texas, where...
Tree: An Artist's LIfe on the Texas Plains. Historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
J. Evetts Haley
J. Evetts Haley
James Evetts Haley, Sr., usually known as J. Evetts Haley , was a Texas-born political activist and historian who wrote multiple works on the American West, including an enduring biography of legendary cattleman Charles Goodnight...
in 1960 published F. Reaugh: Man and Artist.
In Reaugh’s will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
, dated May 16, 1940, filed before his death in Dallas County
Dallas County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...
, the painter noted, “The main part of my property is in pictures… These are largely of the great prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
s of Texas and the longhorned cattle of fifty years ago . . . It is my wish that these pictures be kept together if only for historical reasons. They create the spirit of the time. They show the sky unsullied by smoke, and the broad opalescent prairies not disfigured by wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
fences or other signs of man."
Having given away most of his possessions, Reaugh died in poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
in Dallas in 1945 at the age of eighty-four. He had vowed years earlier never to live anywhere outside of Texas. He is buried in Terrell Cemetery.
External links
- Texas Capitol Historical Art Collection
- Handbook of Texas Online – Charles Franklin Reaugh
- Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The University of Texas at Austin
- Frank Reaugh Gallery at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum
- The Pastel Range: Frank Reaugh, Ranch Historian – National Ranching Heritage Center 2007 Exhibition
- Frank Reaugh at Askart.com
- Papers, 1902–1960, in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University