Robert Jenkins Onderdonk

Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (January 16, 1852 – July 2, 1917) was an American painter and art teacher, born in Catonsville, Maryland. he was a long-time art teacher in San Antonio and Dallas, where he formed art associations and leagues; for his contributions to the culture of art and painting in Texas he is known as the "Dean of Texas's Artists."

Biography

Robert came from a "distinguished and cultured Dutch family." His father was the Headmaster of Saint James School near Hagerstown, MD, between 1869 and his death in 1895, and had served as the President of the Maryland Agricultural College (now the University of Maryland) between 1861 and 1864. His great uncles were bishops of the Episcopal Church. Robert Jenkins Onderdonk studied art at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York in the 1870s.

In San Antonio, he founded an art association for women painters, the Van Dyck club, which later became the San Antonio Arts League; his daughter Eleanor was an important member and organizer. In 1893 in Dallas, he co-founded the Art Students League of Dallas, According to Fisk's A History of Texas Artists, he would have been ranked one of America's finest artists if he had spent more time painting rather than teaching. was a respected miniaturist,

Robert died in 1917 at the age of sixty-five at his home in San Antonio. His works are in the collections of the Witte Museum, the Stark Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Texas State Library.

Artwork