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Appendix B
- Texas State Historical Association
- Chapter
- Additional Information
| 165 | The Evolution of Julian Onderdonk’s Signature, 1897–1922 The purpose of this appendix is two-fold: first to look at the evolution of Julian’s signature through time, and second to examine how he formed the characters in his signatures, dates, and inscriptions . This analysis will provide a basis for comparison with the Elbert H. Turner, Chas. Turner, and Chase Turner signatures, dates, and titles, and to document the known, legible pseudonym signatures, dates, and inscriptions . Julian Onderdonk’s earliest signatures exhibit a good deal of variation, as one would expect from a teenage boy still experimenting with his signature. He mixed upper- and lowercase letters, with A, N and E capitalized at times. In his earliest signatures certain letters descended below the text line where they would normally end. His d’s and l’s nearly always did so (figure 1). Over time he elongated the J’s, O’s, and K’s and so they also dropped below the text line. From the beginning, Julian had a unique and distinctive way of making his lowercase r’s. At first it looked like a plant with leaves curving up, out, and back toward the down stroke. Over time he reduced or eliminated the curve on the left, but the one on the right sometimes curved back to touch the down stroke making what looked like a lowercase p. Often he would simplify the r, and make it look like a normal r, but up until his death he often reverted to making the r look like a p (figures 1–4, 6b, and 8). Julian also had a distinctive way of makAppendix B The Signatures of Julian Onderdonk and His Pseudonyms Figure 1: Julian Onderdonk, untitled, Feb. 6, 1894 or 1897, graphite and ink on paper, 3.75 x 8.125 inches. Image courtesy of David Dike Fine Art, Dallas. Reprinted with permission. Figure 2: Julian Onderdonk, Old Fort at Pedro Springs, July 19, 1899, pencil on paper, 7 x 8.5 inches. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Catto, San Antonio. Image from The Onderdonks: A Family of Texas Painters by Cecilia Steinfeldt (Trinity University Press 1976), 116. Reprinted with permission. Figure 3: Julian Onderdonk, Just Nothing, Part I, 1902, pen and ink on paper, dimensions not stated. GouldOnderdonk Papers. Image from Steinfeldt, The Onderdonks, 98. Reprinted with permission. Figure 6 a and b: Front and verso signatures from Julian Onderdonk, Winter Moonrise, 1908, oil on wood panel, 9 x 12 inches. Private collection, Dallas, Texas. Image by James Graham Baker. Figure 7: Julian Onderdonk, Afternoon, Sullivan Co. N.Y., 1909, oil on wood panel, 6 x 9 inches. The verso bears the inscription: Afternoon, Sullivan Co. N.Y., Julian Onderdonk, 1909. Private collection, Dallas, Texas. Image by James Graham Baker. Figure 4: Julian Onderdonk, Seascape, n.d., oil on canvas 7.1 x 12.2 inches. Roger H. Ogden Collection, New Orleans. Figure 5: Julian Onderdonk, A Glimpse of the Sea, 1906, oil on canvas, 14 x 20 inches. Collection of Frank and Mary Hart, Atlanta. Image by James Graham Baker. Baker pages final_FCID.pdf 183 12/26/13 1:22 PM ing this lower case e’s. Rather than having the straight return of the e parallel to the text line he would make the return at about a 45 degree angle. Often the return was curved, but it was usually at an angle rather than parallel to the text line, and this characteristic endured from his earliest signatures until his last (figures 1–8). His uppercase O also changed through time. In his earliest signatures its shape approached a circle, but over time he stretched it out to become more oval, and by 1902 he had stylized it and stretched it out considerably (figures 1–3). Julian’s capital A letters usually have a longer diagonal stroke on the right side than on the left, and that stroke often descends below the text line (figures 5, 7, 8). His capital C letters are also stylized with a prominent serif at the top (figures 7, 8). He also placed the serif on this capital G letters (figure 5). The changes Julian made to his lower case n’s are particularly useful in helping to date his works. In his earliest works he tended to capitalize the N’s in his name. By the time he left San Antonio in January 1901 to study in New York, he had settled on a signature that he...