The 1923 patent drawings from Reaugh’s plein air lap easel design
Jouette Travis, The University of Texas at Dallas
My Spring, 2020 independent study was underway with Dr. Brettell when my second trip to The Frank Reaugh art collection in Canyon, Texas was cancelled due to Covid. Frank Reaugh (1860-1945) studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, built two art studios in Dallas, and took his art club out every summer for several weeks of horse and later car camping, to capture landscapes en plein air. He was a teacher to several of the Dallas Nine artists, started the art room at Dallas’ Carnegie Library, and was founder the original Dallas Museum of Fine Arts at Fair Park.
An initial 2019 trip to visit Palo Duro Canyon and the Panhandle & Plains Historical Museum, on the campus of of West Texas A & M University, allowed me to complete my final paper. But with museums closed and curators unavailable for the rest of 2020, progress was redirected over the summer and fall to one of my seven follow up projects. While I had to proceed without Dr. Brettell’s oversight, his interest in Texas artists and in a Museum of Texas Art (MoTA) still motivates me and many others at UT Dallas and around Dallas.
Using the 1923 patent drawings from Reaugh’s plein air lap easel design, I had two easels crafted by a local woodworker, completed December, 2020.
Plein air painting is socially distanced and even though health concerns were not the motivation behind my research into the artist’s tools and methods, creating art out-of-doors may provide artists some needed flexibility in their work environments. My plan for Spring, 2021 is to explore the methods of this pioneering Dallas artist using his original designs. EODIAH introduced me, and many others, to Texas art and artists.