World

Centennial Texas Bluebonnet Painting Survives Goodwill Donation and Fetches $112,500 at Dallas Auction

By TOI World Desk

A 1921 painting of Texas bluebonnets, once almost donated to Goodwill during a family move, was saved by relatives and later identified as an original by celebrated Texas landscape painter Julian Onderdonk. The work, titled "A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio," was a gift to Carlotta Preston from a distant relative to mark her birth in 1922. It remained in the family for decades, its artistic and monetary value unknown. When the family moved from California to Washington state, several items were loaded onto a trailer for donation; Preston changed her mind at the last minute and kept the painting. After her death, the painting hung in her daughter’s home near Tacoma. The family later researched its origins and discovered it was an Onderdonk original.

Julian Onderdonk, born in San Antonio in 1882, was known as the defining Texas landscape painter. He began teaching art as a teenager, later moved to New York City for study and teaching, but maintained strong ties to Texas. In 1906 he worked at the Dallas State Fair, and three years later returned to Texas with his family. His work increasingly featured Texas landscapes, especially bluebonnets, which became a signature element of his impressionist scenes.

The painting was consigned to Heritage Auctions in Dallas. On June 29, 2024, it sold for $112,500. The sale placed it among other notable Onderdonk works that fetched $106,250 and $93,750 at the same auction.

Texas Monthly reported that Preston’s grandson, Jared Brinkley, flew in from Seattle with the century‑old painting, which was protected with foam, cardboard and packing materials for the trip. The family’s efforts to preserve and transport the artwork ensured it remained in private hands for more than a century.

Onderdonk painted "A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio" in 1921, a year before his death in 1922. His oeuvre remains in major American art collections, including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth and the San Antonio Museum of Art.

The Washington Post highlighted the surprising financial return for the Brinkley family, while Texas Monthly documented the personal significance of preserving and transporting such a rare family possession. The painting’s journey from a potential Goodwill donation to a six‑figure auction sale illustrates how family heirlooms can hold unrecognized historical and artistic value for generations.