Rounded Up
In Glory

Frank Reaugh, Texas Renaissance Man


Photographs of Frank Reaugh: top left by unknown photographer; top right by Ernst Raba;
bottom by Annie Dealey Jackson


Rounded Up
In Glory

Frank Reaugh, Texas Renaissance Man

Michael R. Grauer

University of North Texas Press
Denton, Texas


©2016 Michael R. Grauer
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Permissions:
University of North Texas Press
1155 Union Circle #311336
Denton, TX 76203-5017
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the ­American

National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
z39.48.1984. Binding materials have been chosen for durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grauer, Michael R., 1961–
Rounded up in glory : Frank Reaugh, Texas Renaissance man / Michael R. Grauer.

p. cm.—
Denton, Texas : University of North Texas Press, [2016]
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57441-633-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Reaugh, Frank, 1860–1945. 2. Painters—Texas—Biography.
ND237.R25 G73 2016
759.13--dc23
2016009426
The colorplates in this book were made possible by a generous grant from the
Gayden Family Foundation
The electronic edition of this book was made possible by the support of the Vick
Family Foundation. Typeset by vPrompt eServices.


I dedicate this book to my family and friends who have patiently
stood by me through 30 years of research and endless stories about
Mr. Reaugh, and especially to my father, Richard Lee Grauer,
who was rounded up in glory himself in 2013.
All of you know who you are.


contents

Donors

List of Illustrations

viii
ix

“Rounded Up in Glory”

xiii

Prelude

xv

Acknowledgements

xix

Introduction

1

1 Art in Texas, 1836–1890

4

2 Learning the Ropes

16

3 1890–1900: Success


87

4 1900–1910: National Attention

123

colorplates

5 1910–1920: New Pursuits

153

6 1920–1930: Turning Point

174

7 1930–1940: Betrayal

224

8 1940–1945: Slow Fade

261

9Conclusion

266

Appendix: Legacy


293

Endnotes

315

Bibliography

359

Index

377
vii


Donors

This book would not have been possible without the generous help from
the following donors:











Alice and Charlie Adams
Gregg R. Bynum
Mary and Bill Cheek
David Dike Fine Art LLC
Dr. Kenneth Hamlett
Dr. Martin English
Beverly and George Palmer
Rainone Galleries
Patricia and Jeff Sone

And a special thank-you to The Gayden Family Foundation for making
the color insert possible.

viii


Li s t o f I l l u s t r a t i o n s

Figures
Frontispiece: Photographer unknown, [Frank Reaugh], circa 1940–45,
photograph, 9 7/8 x 7 3/4 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum,
Research Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.
Ernst Raba, Mr. Frank Reaugh-The Man and Artist, 1908,
photograph, 9 5/16 x 7 1/2 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum,
Research Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.
Annie Dealey Jackson, [Frank Reaugh in His Studio], 1900,
photograph, 8 x 11 3/4 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum,
Research Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.


1 Vincent Colyer, On the Big Canadian River, 1869, watercolor
and pencil on paper, 7 9/16 x 13 5/16 in., Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum, Friends of Southwestern Art Purchase.

10

2 Jack Potter, “Map Showing Cattle Trails as used from 1866
to 1895 . . .” circa 1937, Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum Research Center, H. D. Bugbee Collection.

19

3 One of George Washington Reaugh’s block planes,

Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh
Estate Collection. Ralph Duke, Amarillo, Texas, photographer.

23

4 Frank Reaugh, Untitled [Monochromatic landscape with

Pressed moth], n.d., pastel on paper, 9 x 11 3/8 in.,
National Ranching Heritage Center of Texas Tech University.

28

5 Frank Reaugh, Copy after J.M.W. Turner’s Little Devil’s Bridge

over the Russ, circa 1880, ink on paper, 7 1/8 x 9 5/16 in.,
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, gift of Gretchen Parks.


32

6 Frank Reaugh, Copy after Horatio McClulloch’s Kilchurn

Castle, 1880, pastel on paper, 9 3/8 x 13 1/8 in., PanhandlePlains Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

34

ix


x

List of Illustrations

7 Frank Reaugh, Copy after Jean-Francois Millet’s Noon, circa
1880, pencil on paper, 4 x 6 1/2 in., Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

34

8 Frank Reaugh, Copy after Robert Swain Gifford’s The South

Beach, circa 1880, pencil on paper, 4 x 6½ in., PanhandlePlains Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

9 Author’s comparative photograph of longhorn skull and
Hereford skull.

35

42

10 Frank Reaugh, #578 Speckled Steer-Facing, 1894, mounted
photograph, 4 1/4 x 6 1/2 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum Research Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

43

11 Frank Reaugh, Leading Horses in Western Texas, 1883,
5 3/8 x 6 3/4 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum,
Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

51

12 Frank Reaugh, To “Chewing Bones”(studies), circa 1885,
pastel on paper, 5 5/16 x 8 9/16 in., Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

57

13 Frank Reaugh, Untitled [Holstein Bull], 1885-1890,

pastel on paper, 5 11/16 x 7 1/2 in., Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

78

14 Frank Reaugh, [Reaugh Home, 8th and Beckley, Oak Cliff,
Texas], circa 1900, mounted photograph, 4 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.,
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Research Center,

Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

92

15 Frank Reaugh, February in Texas (sketch), circa 1893,

pastel on paper, 6 1/8 x 9 7/8 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

93

16 Cover, Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Western

Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, February 28 – March 13,
1901, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum Research
Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.
116

17 Frank Reaugh, [sketches for Armour Meat calendar], circa
1899, pencil on paper, 9 1/4 x 111/8 in., Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

122




xi

List of Illustrations


18 Photograph of Frank Reaugh and sketching outfit, circa
1890, 4 x 5 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Research Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.
Photographer unknown.

136

19 Photograph from “Trans Llano Sketch Association” album,
1911, 4 x 5 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Research Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.
Photographer probably Frank Reaugh.

156

20 Detail of illustration on letter from Frank Reaugh to

L. O. Griffith, 12 November 1916, Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum Research Center, Frank Reaugh
Estate Collection.

166

21 Harriet P. Grandstaff Night of January 7, 1930 graphite
on paper, 11 1/4 x 10 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum, Gift of the Artist. (Frank Reaugh and L. O. Griffith
playing checkers.)

205


22 Photograph of Striginian Club during ceremony, circa

1920, 4 x 5 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Research Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.
Photographer unknown.

212

23 James Cheek, Front (East) Elevation [El Sibil], circa 1926,

pencil on paper, 12 x 18 9/16 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum Research Center, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

214

24 Harper’s Weekly, January 31, 1874, page 100, with wood
engraving after William de la Montagne Cary, “Cattle Raid
on the Texas Border” (detail).

285

Colorplates

1 Frank Reaugh, Distant Herd . . . Going, 1927, Oil on canvas

mounted on board, 14 1/8 x 28 1/8 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

2 Frank Reaugh, Watering the Herd. 1889, pastel on paper
mounted on canvas, 18 1/8 x 34 3/8 in., Panhandle-Plains

­Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.


xii

List of Illustrations

3 Frank Reaugh, The Approaching Herd, 1902, oil on canvas
mounted on Masonite, 23 1/2 x 48 1/2 in., Panhandle-Plains
­Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

4 Frank Reaugh, The O Roundup, Texas, 1888, 1894, pastel on
paper mounted on canvas, 18 5/8 x 43 7/8 in., Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

5 Frank Reaugh, Untitled [Cattle and Mesa], n.d., oil on prepared

­cardboard, 5 5/8 x 11 1/2 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum,
Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

6 Frank Reaugh, Untitled [Branch with Pink Blossoms], circa

1910, pastel on paper, 11 x 5 1/8 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

7 Frank Reaugh, Sheepherder’s Camp, 1893, pastel on paper
mounted on canvas, 20 x 40 in., Private Collection.

8 Color plate VIII. Frank Reaugh, A Sentinel of the Plains, 1908,
oil on canvas mounted on board, 14 x 36 1/8 in., PanhandlePlains Historical Museum, gift of Summerfield Roberts.


9 Frank Reaugh, Powder River, 1915, oil on canvas, 20 5/8 x 40 1/2
in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate
Collection.

10 Frank Reaugh, A Watering Place (Herd by the River), n.d.,

oil on board, 7 5/8 x 17 1/2 in., Private Collection, Dallas, Texas.

11 Frank Reaugh, Sunrise on the Prairie, 1884, pastel on paper,
5 5/8 x 8 3/4 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum,
Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

12 Frank Reaugh, Grass and Ragweed, circa 1890, pastel on

paper, 5 3/8 x 10 9/16 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum,
Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.

13 Frank Reaugh, Fairy Cliffs of Tule, circa 1933, pastel on paper,

4 1/16 x 8 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Frank Reaugh
Estate Collection.

14 Frank Reaugh, Untitled [Cowboy and Running Herd], circa 1895,
pastel on paper, 5 x 8 11/16 in., Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum, Frank Reaugh Estate Collection.


Rounded Up in Glory
(Cowboy’s Carnival)


I have been thinking to-day,
As my thoughts began to stray,
Of your memory to me worth more than gold.
As you ride across the plain,
’Mid the sunshine and the rain, -You will be rounded up in glory bye and bye.
Chorus:
You will be rounded up in glory bye and bye,
You will be rounded up in glory bye and bye,
When the milling time is o’er
And you will stampede no more,
When he rounds you up within the Master’s fold.
As you ride across the plain
With the cowboys that have fame,
And the storms and the lightning flash by.
We shall meet to part no more
Upon the golden shore
When he rounds us up in glory bye and bye.
May we lift our voices high
To that sweet bye and bye,
And be known by the brand of the Lord;
For his property we are,
And he will know us from afar
When he rounds us up in glory bye and bye.
Written by C. W. Byron, 1900

xiii


P R ELUDE


On 30 May 2015 I stand on the bridge over Tule Creek below the
dam that formed Lake Mackenzie out of Tule Canyon in Briscoe
County, Texas, in 1976. I am looking at one of the landscape features that captivated Frank Reaugh for many years: the Cliffs of
Tule. And due to incredible rainfall this spring, I see for my first
time Tule Creek with water flowing in it. After over 27 years of l­ iving
in the Texas Panhandle, I have driven this road many times. This is
a gift.
On numerous occasions over the past couple of years, I have
had the opportunity to drive Frank Reaugh’s “Western Texas”
through Silverton to Dickens to Aspermont to Abilene and as far
south as Christoval on the South Concho River. I do not believe
these opportunities are accidental. I believe Mr. Reaugh was calling
me to do so; consequently I enjoyed the distinctive honor of seeing,
smelling, touching, and feeling—to truly experience—the land he
so dearly loved. With that, only today can I truly lend credibility to
this tome . . . and here’s why:  
In his 2014 book, Kit Carson and the First Battle of Adobe Walls:
A Tale of Two Journeys, historian and archaeologist Alvin Lynn noted
his “disappointment that no author who had written about Carson’s
battle at Adobe Walls ever set foot on the trail or the battlefield.”1
I share Mr. Lynn’s disappointment that so few authors of the numerous articles, monographs, and studies on Frank Reaugh ever walked
in his footsteps, and even worse, seem to have avoided letting his
paintings speak for themselves. Until I read Mr. Lynn’s book, I did
not realize I had been “on the [Reaugh] trail” since 1985 when
I moved from Washington, D. C. to Dallas.
Beginning in summer 1986--admittedly unknowingly at first—
I  began my Frank Reaugh odyssey with a trip to Wyoming and
drove across the Crow Reservation in Montana (the prettiest, greenest grass I ever did see). This was followed in March 1987 when


xv


xviPrelude

I took a camping trip—a la a Reaugh sketching expedition—from
Dallas to Big Bend, Texas. My route took me through Sweetwater,
­Balmorhea, Fort Stockton, Fort Davis, and to a camp in the snow in
the Davis Mountains below Indian Lodge. On to Big Bend National
Park I trekked where the wall-to-wall RVs forced a night sleeping in
the bed of my pickup and a detour to Terlingua the next day. And,
I  looked over the Rio Grande out into Mexico. Unwittingly, I was
standing where Mr. Reaugh had stood 64 years earlier.
My Reaugh-led research journey began in earnest a year later
when Southern Methodist University awarded me a Haakon Traveling Fellowship for summer 1988 to travel to France, Belgium, The
Netherlands, and Germany, to cut Mr. Reaugh’s trail for sign. Using
some of his ink drawings he made in Paris and The Netherlands for
souvenirs as my guide, I attempted to walk where he walked. Many
of the records of the Academie Julian having been destroyed during
World War II, I was fortunate to find the original registration book
with his name entered a hundred years before I read it for myself.
That was a great day.
Since that original research for my thesis, my work on and tracking of Mr. Reaugh has never ceased. I often attempted to arrange
my frequent travels across the Lone Star State, into the American
Southwest, and even north to Colorado and Wyoming, to afford
opportunities to trace his actions. Consequently, I have visited
places such as Eliasville, Flomot, Gasoline, Quitaque, Benjamin,
Bronte, and Spur, Texas; Acoma and Laguna Pueblos, Taos, Las
Vegas, Tucumcari, Las Cruces, Ruidoso, and the Organ Mountains,
New Mexico; Flagstaff, San Francisco Peaks, Tucson, Phoenix, and

Grand Canyon, Arizona; Colorado Springs, Pike’s Peak, ­Spanish
Peaks, Trinidad, Conejos Canyon, and Pueblo, Colorado; Fort
Sill, Lawton, Ardmore, and Claremore, Oklahoma; and Cody and
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; and have been on historic
ranches such as the T Anchors, JAs, the 6666s, the XITs, the ROs,
the Matadors, the Pitchforks, and the Spurs. Moreover, I have had
the distinct honor of riding herd on over 1,000 Reaugh works of
art (oils, pastels, pencil drawings, and photographs) and countless
Reaugh artifacts for 28 years.


Prelude
xvii

Therefore, and again to borrow from and paraphrase my good
friend Alvin Lynn, “I know the movements [of Mr. Reaugh]  .  .  .  well;
I’ve studied every scrap of information and read every book [and
article] I could find about [Mr. Reaugh].” There may be someone
else who has examined Mr. Reaugh more assiduously, but I am not
sure who that is.
But the time has come to write it all down and turn this herd
into the corral. Before He rounds us up in glory bye and bye I am
sure someone, somewhere, will catch an error or two. However,
whoever that someone is has miles to travel to catch up to me (and
Mr. Reaugh).


AC K NOWLED G E M ENTS

Although it would be impossible to thank every person who helped

with this book, I shall try.
Firstly, I could not have begun without the tutelage and friendship of John Lunsford at Southern Methodist University. His
patience with telephone calls at all hours and his hospitality eased
the sometimes overwhelming burden of the task from far away
while I worked on my thesis on Reaugh’s early career and got this
book started. Dr. Alessandra Comini and Dr. Eleanor Tufts of SMU
were especially helpful even through the ordeal of long distance
correspondence and I thank them heartily. The Department of Art
History at SMU was most generous in granting a Haakon Traveling
Award to me to track Mr. Reaugh in Europe, without which that
section would not be as thorough as I hope it is. Finally, at SMU,
I could not have completed my thesis, much less the program, and
certainly not this book, without art history department secretary
Brenda Huber. She fielded telephone calls, letters, and messages,
and always kept me on track. And she helped during the beginning
of the program in ways that she will probably never know. Thanks,
Brenda.
I extend my thanks to the entire staff of the Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum, but certain individuals deserve special recogni­ rances
tion. Administrative assistants Diane Brake, Claudette Sharp, F
Kohout, and Tammy Hefner, and former registrar Sidney Shaller
and current registrar Mary Moore, were instrumental in getting the
thesis and, ultimately, the book off the ground and landing it, respectively. Claire Kuehn, Dorothy Johnson, Betty Bustos, Cesa Espinoza,
Millie Vanover, and Warren Stricker of the PPHM’s Research ­Center
bent over backwards in helping me find Reaugh material in the
archives; moreover Warren scanned innumerable Reaugh images
over many years and helped me find certain Reaugh documents.
PPHM’s curator emeritus of history, Dr. William Elton Green, taught

xix



xxAcknowledgements

me the weight of documentation and proper research, and so Bill is
responsible for all the endnotes! Finally, I  thank former directors
D.  Ryan Smith and Walter R. Davis III, and current director Guy
C. Vanderpool, for their continued support and encouragement,
and Ryan especially for granting me a leave of absence to travel
to Europe even though I hadn’t been at PPHM quite a year when
I went. I extend a special thanks to Olive Vandruff Bugbee, former
curator of art, who helped me catalogue every single Frank Reaugh
pastel and oil at PPHM in 1987 and 1988, for her assistance with
this project. Olive also “sponsored” my trip to Europe telling me that
she’d never get to go, so I was going for her.
There are others associated with the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society and/or West Texas A&M University for their unswerving inspiration in completing this book. These fine people include
Natrelle and Russell Long; Bonney MacDonald; Annette and Garry
Nall; Betty and Fred Rathjen; Janey and Don Ray; and Amy Winton;
I am indebted to them all.
In searching out Reaugh paintings and archival materials
in Texas several individuals and staffs were extremely helpful.
Kathleen Gee of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas,
was most kind in allowing me to examine all 231 Reaugh paintings there, as well as providing some useful information. Likewise,
Peter Mears, the current curator of the Reaugh Collection at UT,
broke new ground with their exhibition and catalogue for same,
Windows on the West: The Art of Frank Reaugh, to which I contributed
an essay. The staff of the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center,
University of Texas, was eager to assist and did so enthusiastically.
While less well staffed than the HRC, the Southwest Collection at
Texas Tech University proved to be a boon because of its staff and

their willingness to provide access to materials and to all 217 paintings there.
Certain Reaugh students also deserve special thanks. Lucretia
Donnell Coke provided insight and encouragement at a low point
in the book’s progress and I thank her heartily. Similarly, Josephine
Oliver Travis granted me an interview and I thank her for that
and her willingness to let me visit any time. Other former Reaugh


Acknowledgements
xxi

students, Eleanor Adams English and June Mascho, also granted me
interviews in person and via telephone, respectively.
In St. Louis, Gerald Bolas, former director, Washington University Gallery of Art, provided important material in spite of trying
to move at the same time. Stephanie Sigala, Head Librarian, and
Norma Sindelar, Archivist, Richardson Memorial Library, St. Louis
Art Museum, provided a watershed of material on the St. Louis
Museum and School of Fine Arts and Halsey C. lves.
In Paris, nearly everyone was eager to help; however, there were
individuals who went out of their way to help a sometimes confused
American. Frédéric Siron, Cabinet de Dessins, Musée du Louvre,
was my companion while looking at pastels and I thank him for his
conversation and insight. Christian Garoscio, Restaurateur d’Arts
Graphiques au Musée d’Orsay, was instrumental in tracking down
the Académie Julian archives. Anne Roquebert, Documentation,
and Anne-Paule Benzaquin, Bibliotheque, both Musee d’Orsay, and
their staffs, were most generous with their help as was the staff of
the Bibliotheque au Musée du Louvre, especially the photo-copy
man who was most amusing. Although extremely confusing sometimes, I thank the staff of the Bibliotheque Nationale, especially the
branch at Versailles, for their patience and their help. Finally, Mlle

Hildesheimer (I never knew her first name) was extremely helpful
with the Académie Julian papers.
Perhaps my friends deserve the most gratitude and I would
like to thank several in particular. Kathy Windrow and Jess Galloway always fielded my middle-of-the-night telephone calls and were
always encouraging. Finally, for his interest, support, and for being
my friend while at SMU and beyond, I warmly thank Claudio Zambianchi (“Zamblanche”).
Any project requires a champion, and mine were many; most
were collectors of early Texas art. Among those who I thank
emphatically are Marcia and Marc Bateman; J. P. Bryan; Mary and
Bill Cheek; A. C. Cook; Holly and Sanford Cox; Nancy and Joseph
Foran; Cynthia and Bill Gayden; Geralyn and Mark Kever; Cliff
Logan; Beverly and George Palmer; Linda and Bill Reaves; Patricia
and Jeffrey Sone; and Randy Tibbits and Rick Bebermeyer.


xxiiAcknowledgements

Mr. Cheek gave generously not only from his own pocketbook,
but also of a sometimes even more valuable resource, time and
expertise, to help with this project. Thank you Bill, for without you
the recognition factor for Texas art would be nowhere today and
there would not be a TACO or CASETA.
Likewise, A. C. Cook (Yosemite Sam in the flesh), never hesitated to share his opinions with me; nor with anybody else for that
matter! He helped me see the “national treasure” that Mr. Reaugh
and early Texas art was and is. A. C. also reminded me that I am
the caretaker of Mr. Reaugh’s legacy for just a little while, and to be
humble in that sacred duty. In other words, he taught me that I am
the pipe, not the source.
Cynthia and Bill Gayden, through their foundation, funded the
color plates in this monograph. I am indebted to them for stepping

up at the eleventh hour (yet again) to rescue one of my projects.
Thank you, Cynthia and Bill.
Museum, library, and archive directors, curators and registrars
have come and gone and some have stuck throughout the life of the
writing of this book. Sam Ratcliffe, Head, and Ellen Buie Niewyk,
Curator, Jerry Bywaters Special Collection, Hamon Arts Library,
SMU, were extremely helpful in spite of the small Reaugh collection there. Joanne Cullum, then registrar at the Meadows Museum
at SMU, tasked me in the summer of 1986 with finding the University Art Collection, scattered all over campus. Among those
works located were a couple Reaugh pastels. Ms. Cullum always
encouraged and pushed me and taught me how to pronounce
Reaugh. I wish to thank Terry Keane, former director of the Abilene
Museum of Fine Arts; J. Evetts Haley, Nita Stewart Haley Memorial
Library and History Center; Eleanor Jones Harvey, senior curator
at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and former curator of
American art at the Dallas Museum of Art; Rebecca Lawton of the
Amon Carter Museum of American Art; Emily Neff, formerly of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; B. Byron Price, director, Charles
M. Russell Center and the University of Oklahoma Press, University
of Oklahoma; Cecilia Steinfeldt, curator emerita, Witte Museum;
Howard Taylor, director, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. There


Acknowledgements
xxiii

are others whom I have not forgotten, but simply mis-shelved in
my memory.
Lastly, I thank my parents, Richard L. and Nancy Grauer, for
their combination of encouragement, support, chastisement, and
push, without which I would never have finished. And to my family:

Paula Grauer, Matthew Finney, Hannah Grauer, and Sarah Grauer,
I extend my deepest gratitude and love for your patience with me
during the writing of this book, over these many years.
Finally, I thank Charles Franklin Reaugh for providing me the
chance to tell his story as accurately as I could. I only wish I had
been privileged enough to sleep out under the West Texas stars on
one of his sketching trips.


Introduction

In 1936, Texas celebrated its centennial. After intense com-

petition among the major cities in Texas at that time, primarily San
Antonio, Houston, and Dallas, the north Texas city won the right
to host the Texas Centennial Central Exposition. Dallas had been
hosting the State Fair of Texas since at least 1885, and presented the
most elaborate and extensive array of new construction and opportunities to present to the world what Texas was all about.
Included in these ambitious plans was a new Dallas Museum of
Fine Arts. Among the exhibitions to be presented at the centennial
celebration would be an historical survey of American art. Borrowing from institutions and private collectors across the nation, this
exhibition would be touted as one of the finest of its kind ever presented in the United States up to that point. Moreover, also part of
the art exhibitions would be an opportunity to show the world what
art-making in Texas looked like in 1936.
Unfortunately, perhaps the most important figure in Texas art
was conspicuously not invited to the party, neither in the survey
of American art nor in the Texas section. Despite having moved
to ­Dallas in 1890; despite having brought the finest in American
art to the State Fair of Texas for at least a decade so as to give the
Fair art exhibition a strong foundation; despite having devoted his

career to bringing art in all forms to Dallas, including exhibiting
his own work, offering musical and theatrical performances, and

1


2

Rounded Up in Glory

establishing the very first public art gallery in Dallas; and despite
having taught thousands of children in Dallas through art to be better observers of the world around them, the artist left off that invitation list was none other than Frank Reaugh.
Ironically, that same year Reaugh wrote a small pamphlet entitled simply, Biographical, in which he described how his art took
a  different trail from his contemporaries Charles M. Russell and
Frederic Remington. Reaugh felt that during the Texas trail driving
years he “was the only artist, it seems, who thought of [trail drives
and Texas longhorns] as being a subject to paint.” Calling longhorns
“Texas cattle,” Reaugh probably painted—and photographed—the
only images of true Texas longhorns, before they were cross-bred
with European cattle. Furthermore, Reaugh’s plein-air pastels of the
landscape of the Southwest, usually done along the Red, Wichita,
Brazos, and Concho rivers and on into New Mexico, Arizona, and
Colorado, and even Wyoming, show his interest in preserving the
landscape of the American Southwest before it was overgrazed or
plowed under:
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.1


Inventor, teacher, artist, and arts promoter all describe the man
who is truly Texas’s “Leonardo.”2 Likewise his paintings are unparalleled in American art. Appropriately, he is often called the “Dean
of Texas Artists.” Moreover, Reaugh may have had greater impact
on the future of Texas art than any artist or teacher prior to World
War II, and possibly even today. Frank Reaugh was a genius.
Most publications on Reaugh up to this point have focused more
on his eccentricities (“ate corn meal mush for breakfast”; “slept on
sawhorses”) or on the sketching trips with students as some kind
of bohemian precursor to the “Merry Pranksters” of 1960s infamy.
Moreover, some authors on Reaugh had their own axes to grind,
attempting to have had him rub shoulders with Old  Texas or


Introduction
3

Old  West characters. Much of that which has been written about
Reaugh has been so much folderol about the authors themselves;
rarely has Reaugh been allowed to speak for himself. Finally, there
are those raconteurs about Reaugh who suffer ­mightily for him,
or have attempted to absorb some of his spotlight as their own.
Sadly, no publication on Reaugh that I am aware of has ever looked
critically at his life and career. Reaugh has become somewhat
legendary, and in most cases, the legend was printed. However,
while the facts support much of the legend, the facts are a far
greater story. This monograph is an attempt to let Mr. Reaugh, and
the truth about him, speak for themselves.



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Chapter

Art in Texas, 1836–1890

Texas was not a hotbed for art-making nor for art apprecia-

tion between the founding of the Republic of Texas (1836) and the
centennial of the United States (1876), the same year Frank Reaugh
arrived in the Lone Star State. Frances Battaile Fisk, one of the earliest Texas-art historians, placed the beginning of Texas’s art history
proper at 1888 “with the painting of the Presidents of the Republic
of Texas and the Governors of the State, and of vast historical subjects, and of the erection of monuments and statues . . . Texans
of earlier generations were too occupied with the development of
material resources, following the struggle for independence, to
have any leisure for the enjoyment of beauty.”1
Esse Forrester-O’Brien put things a bit more graphically for the
history of art-making in the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas: “In
the days when the Indians ruled the land, the story goes that while
an unknown artisan was yet carving on the great door to LaSalle’s
fort, Fort St. Louis, on Lavaca Bay, Texas, the Indians smote him
down. Art is especially slow where scalping is in style.” 2
In spite of pioneer preoccupations—including never-ending
threats from American Indians, primarily Comanches and their
Southern Plains allies—there was art activity in some areas of Texas,
centering around Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Itinerant
portrait painters, artist/explorers, survey artists, and, later in the
century, academically trained artists who established permanent or

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