DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's worth every word. There was a man named Frank Reagh — R-E-A-G-H, not the way you'd first guess — born in 1860, and by the time he died in 1945 he had done something that most folks only dream about: he had found his one true subject and spent a lifetime doing it justice. That subject was the Texas longhorn.
Now, the story starts in 1876, when young Frank and his parents, George W. and Clarinda Reaugh, packed up their lives in Illinois and moved to Kaufman County, Texas. Frank would have been about sixteen years old, setting eyes on that wide, flat prairie for what may well have been the first time — and somewhere out there among the cattle, something locked into place. He began sketching.
He began studying. The longhorn had found its painter, or maybe the painter had found the longhorn. Either way, neither one was letting go.
Frank went on to study art in St. Louis, and then across the water in Europe, soaking up technique and craft and all the formal education an artist could want. But when it came time for inspiration — real inspiration — he came back.
Back to the Texas prairie, where the light falls long and the cattle move slow and the horizon goes on forever. In 1890, the family made another move, this time to Dallas, and that's where Frank Reagh grew into something larger than just a painter. He became influential.
Through his teaching and his deep, abiding interest in the arts, he shaped the cultural life of that city. And in 1928, he built himself a place called El Sibil — studio and home both under one roof — a fitting headquarters for a man who never did separate his life from his work. What he left behind are pastels.
Pastels of frontier Texas cattle, rendered with enough truth and feeling that historians have lauded them. You can still find them today, scattered across many Texas cities, those longhorns frozen mid-stride in color and light. Frank Reagh started sketching in Kaufman County in 1876.
He never really stopped.
What the marker says
Artist Frank Reagh (1860-1945), who immortalized the Texas longhorn, began sketching and studying his favorite subject in 1876 when he and his parents, George W. and Clarinda Reaugh, moved from Illinois to Kaufman County. He studied art in St. Louis and Europe but returned to the Texas prairie for inspiration. The family came (1890) to Dallas where Reaugh became influential through his teaching and interest in the arts. He built "El Sibil" as studio and home in 1928. His pastels of frontier Texas cattle, lauded by historians, can be seen in many Texas cities. (1976)