A field of Blue Bonnets, late afternoon sunlight

Blue flowers spill across the entire foreground of this 1912 painting, a carpet of bluebonnets so thick you might think they were the whole world. Julian Onderdonk caught them in the fading light of a Texas afternoon, when the deep blues and purples up close give way to soft greens and golds that drift toward a line of distant trees. The horizon melts into a pale haze, keeping the eye on those wildflowers that Texans hold dear. Onderdonk painted so many scenes like this that people started calling him the Bluebonnet Painter, and this one shows exactly why.

The surface has a lovely shimmer to it, built up from thick, broken dabs of paint. That technique came from Onderdonk's training in New York with William Merritt Chase, where he picked up the ideas of Impressionism before carrying them back to his home near San Antonio. Instead of chasing towering peaks or stormy skies, he turned his attention to plain patches of countryside and let the season do the work. His fields grew so popular that they helped fix the very image of Texas in people's minds.

Onderdonk died at only forty, which makes these springtime scenes feel a little bittersweet. Still, the painting carries no drama or grand ambition, just a genuine fondness for a modest stretch of land dressed up by wildflowers and warm afternoon light.