W I L L I A M R E AV E S | S A R A H F O LT Z F I N E A R T P R E S E N T S :
A Un i qu e Co l l e c t i o n o f A r t wo rk by
Frank Reaugh
About William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art
H OUSTON’S T EXAS- C ENTERED G ALLERY
William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, originally established in 2006 in Houston, Texas, is dedicated to the promotion of
premier Texas artists of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing particularly on historically significant artists active in the state during the period of 1900‒1975.
The gallery showcases many of the state’s most accomplished and recognized talents, all of whom have significant
connections to Texas and have evidenced the highest standards of quality in their work, training, and professionalism. In addition to its general focus on Early Texas Art, the gallery places special emphasis on the rediscovery and presentation
of midcentury works by Houston and South Texas artists. William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art is the foremost provider of
Texas Modern Art, which includes midcentury masters and pioneering expressionists working in the state. The gallery also
represents a dynamic group of contemporary artists, known as the Contemporary Texas Regionalists, actively showing their works in annual gallery exhibitions as well as traveling exhibitions throughout the state.
William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art is a comprehensive gallery offering fine art appraisals, consultation, collections
management, brokerage, and sales services. The gallery exhibits artists working in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, works on paper, and photography. In order to promote interest and broaden knowledge of earlier Texas art,
William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art supports related gallery talks, community events, scholarly research, and publications. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm and other times by appointment.
Gallery Contacts:
William Reaves, President william@reavesart.com
Sarah Foltz, Director sarah@reavesart.com
Cover: Two Cows and Mountain Peak, c. 1910 - 1925, pastel on paper, 4.5 x 8 inches.
PASTEL POET OF THE TEXAS PLAINS In 1876, Reaugh’s parents loaded young Frank and his adopted sister Mary in a wagon and ventured south from Morgan County, Illinois to Kaufman County, Texas. Settling near Terrell, Reaugh took to the warmer temperatures and was enamored by the very fine grass and meandering longhorns.
Reaugh built his second studio, “El Sibil” (The Vault), in 1929 with a storage vault for his paintings, classrooms, studio and performance space for special showings that he personally orchestrated, combining artwork with pros narration, music, and staged lighting.
Not fond of farming, he taught math and grammar to the local school children earning enough for a train ticket to the halls and galleries of St. Louis, Chicago and New York. Reaugh never felt that he had “developed much color sense” until he had visited these masterpieces. Before, Reaugh copied a great deal of art from the European masters from magazines and large-animal anatomy books and since, as he states, “I had not learned to make colors yet,” his earlier works are grisaille, meaning “gray tones.”
Throughout his career, Reaugh continually promoted the arts in Dallas by bringing in exhibits, sometimes at his own expense. As the Director of the Art Department of the State Fair of Texas for five years, Reaugh borrowed and brought some of the earliest collections of artwork from other institutions across the country to Dallas. His donation of the first painting to the Dallas Art Association gave birth to what is known today as the Dallas Museum of Art. His educational and social organizations like The Dallas School of Fine Arts, the Frank Reaugh Art Club, and the Striginian Club for young ladies created a deeper appreciation for nature’s design and its relevance to Texas art.
Without formal art training and very little money, Reaugh sold some of his work to pay for night classes at the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts (1884-1885) and later, the Academie Julian in Paris (1888-1889). In 1889, Reaugh returned from his studies with a clearer vision of his calling. Leaving Terrell, he and his family moved to Oak Cliff, Texas, south of Dallas, and built his first studio “The Ironshed,” which quickly became a beacon for art lovers and students alike. For decades, Reaugh gave private lessons and taught in public schools to students who showed promise and purpose.
Reaugh as an inventor, created a number of artistic tools, such as, a folding lap easel, special coated art paper, blended pastels to match the native flora and a compact carrying case for pastels. He also invented a number of industrial items such as a cooling mechanism for internal combustion engines and the Limacon Pump, a rotary pump for water, which still carries a U.S. patent.
His classes soon gave way to memorable, summer sketching trips spanning over more than 30 years. First by mule, horse and wagon and later by automobile, the travel into the Texas Panhandle and beyond was relentless, yet his students were honored to experience these lessons of a lifetime.
In spite of his many accomplishments, Reaugh was hospitalized in Dallas as a ward of the city and passed away in 1945. Reaugh’s artwork would eventually find a permanent home in the public collections at The University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.
Reaugh’s protégés included Alexandre Hogue, John Douglass, Perry Nichols Josephine Oliver, Louis Oscar Griffith, Reveau Bassett and Lucretia Donnell Coke; some would become synonymous with Lone Star Regionalism and the Dallas Nine, a group of young artists in the 1930s that gained notoriety for turning away from European trends and looking to the land and people of the Southwest for inspiration.
SOURCE: “Pastel Poet of the Texas Plains.” Pastel Poet of the Texas Plains RSS. Web. 8 Jan. 2016. http://marlafields.com/frankreaugh/?page_id=510
• Artwork by Frank Reaugh • No.
Title of Work
1
Blue Skirts
3
Eagle Peak
Date
Medium
Size (inches)
c. 1910 - 1925
pastel on paper
3.25 x 6.75
c. 1910 - 1925
pastel on paper
3 x 6.625
2
Cow Studies XII c. 1897
4
Evening - Borders on the Rhone - Appian
6
Mountain Path c. 1930 pastel on paper 3.5 x 6
c. 1880 - 1890
5
Golden Steer Head [SOLD] c. 1890
7
Reclining Cattle Under Mesquite *
8
Two Color Bull’s Head
9
Two Cows and Mountain Peak *
11
Upper Reaches of the Brazos
c. 1910 - 1925
pastel on paper
grisaille pastel on paper pastel on paper
pastel on paper
6.375 x 10.5
6.25 x 11.5 4x5
3 x 6.5
c. 1910 - 1925
pastel on paper
4 x 3.5
c. 1910 - 1925
pastel on paper
3.77 x 6.375
c. 1910 - 1925
pastel on paper
4.5 x 8
10
Untitled (Shower Near Knob Mountain)
12
Wide Valley [SOLD] c. 1910 - 1925 pastel on paper 4.5 x 8.5
*
c. 1910
pastel on paper
These paintings are signed in the lower right corner. All others have a letter of authentication from Michael Grauer, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs/Curator of Art and Western Heritage for the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.
3.25 x 7.875
1. Blue Skirts, c. 1910 - 1925, pastel on paper, 3.25 x 6.75 inches.
2. Cow Studies XII, c. 1897, pastel on paper, 6.375 x 10.5 inches.
3. Eagle Peak, c. 1910 - 1925, pastel on paper, 3 x 6.625 inches.
4. Evening - Borders on the Rhone - Appian, c. 1880 - 1890, grisaille pastel on paper, 6.25 x 11.5 inches.
5. Golden Steer Head, c. 1890, pastel on paper, 4 x 5 inches. [SOLD]
6. Mountain Path, c. 1930, pastel on paper, 3.5 x 6 inches.
7. Reclining Cattle Under Mesquite, c. 1910 - 1925, pastel on paper, 3 x 6.5 inches. *
8. Two Color Bull’s Head, c. 1910 - 1925, pastel on paper, 4 x 3.5 inches.
9. Two Cows and Mountain Peak, c. 1910 - 1925, pastel on paper, 4.5 x 8 inches. *
10. Untitled (Shower Near Knob Mountain), c. 1910 - 1925, pastel on paper, 3.77 x 6.375 inches.
11. Upper Reaches of the Brazos, c. 1910, pastel on paper, 3.25 x 7.875 inches.
12. Wide Valley, c. 1910 - 1925, pastel on paper, 4.5 x 8.5 inches. [SOLD]
William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art 2143 Westheimer Road • Houston, Texas • 77098 • www.reavesart.com Tel : 713.521.7500 • Contact : INFO@reavesart.com