Description
Porfirio Salinas (1910–1973) Big Bend Texas/Mexico Landscape South of El Paso.<br>100% guaranteed Original Oil on canvas painted by Porfirio Salinas in the 1960's<br>with no damage or restorations of any kind. Overall: 32 3/4 by 38 3/4 inches<br>24" x 30" painting. Salinas is not as well known for his west Texas/Northern<br>Mexico desert landscaped but he did do some. I'm sure it was more pleasant<br>sitting in a bluebonnet field close to home in the spring then it was sweating<br>in the desert, but a trained eye should be able to see this master's skill and<br>respect his diversity.<br><br>On Oct 18, 2008 a much smaller Porfirio Salinas landscape with a similar terrain<br>was offered for auction by David Dike Fine Art at a $15,000 starting price, I'm<br>unsure if it sold or what it sold for. It was titled "75 Miles South of El<br>Paso", 1953 oil on canvas 16 x 20. So less than half of the size of this<br>painting, it had the same cacti and Red Yucca. In 2019 prickly pear Cacti<br>Landscape by Salinas brough $125,000 with the buyers premium at the same David<br>Dike Fine Art.<br><br>The paper on this frame possibly covers the title of this painting, I'm tempted<br>to remove it but I'm going to try my best not to as the old brittle paper does<br>help date the painting and I really like to leave things as I found them. No<br>damage or restorations whatsoever to the painting, thoroughly examined under<br>both natural and UV light.<br><br>Porfirio Salinas (November 6, 1910 – April 18, 1973) was an early Texas<br>landscape painter who is recognized for his depictions of the Texas Hill Country<br>in the springtime. He was one of the first Mexican American artists to become<br>nationally recognized for his paintings. He was described by The New York Times<br>as being United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's favorite painter. Works by<br>Salinas are displayed in the Texas State Capitol, the Texas Governor's Mansion<br>and in a number of museums including the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas and<br>the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.<br><br>Early history<br>Salinas was born on November 6, 1910, near Bastrop, Texas. He came from a family<br>of Mexican American tenant farmers, his father Porfirio G. Salinas and his<br>mother Clara G. Chavez Salinas leaving the farm for San Antonio when Porfirio<br>was a child. Salinas was a precocious talent who drew and painted from the time<br>he was a small boy and received encouragement from his teachers. He had little<br>formal education and left school when he was young in order to work in an art<br>supply store. When he was fifteen he met the English-born landscape artist<br>Robert William Wood (1889–1979) at the store.<br><br>Salinas went to work in Wood's studio in 1925, where he learned the basics of<br>being a professional painter. He stretched Wood's canvasses, and learned to<br>frame paintings, how to mix paints and how to prepare canvas under Wood's<br>supervision. Wood was a very capable businessman, and Salinas learned how to<br>sell and market his art from the English painter. Salinas accompanied Wood and<br>the Spanish-born artist and teacher José Arpa (1858–1952) on sketching trips to<br>the hills and valleys surrounding San Antonio where they painted blooming<br>wildflowers in the spring and the Texas Red Oak in the fall. With his talent and<br>hard work he was soon capable of professional work.<br><br>Professional career<br>Salinas began painting professionally in 1930, when he was twenty years old.[4]<br>His early work was influenced by his mentor Robert Wood's paintings.[5] He<br>painted many scenes of Texas bluebonnets, the state flower, which were sold to<br>tourists by the artists and galleries in San Antonio, Texas. In 1939 he began<br>working with the art dealer Dewey Bradford (1896–1985), who sold paintings,<br>frames and art supplies in the state capital of Austin.<br><br>National recognition<br>While Salinas sold his work steadily, by 1960 he was known primarily to Texas<br>collectors and tourists who visited San Antonio. In 1961, this changed rapidly<br>with the election of his collector Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) to the Vice<br>Presidency of the United States. With his ascension from the United States<br>Senate to being Vice President, Johnson and his wife Lady Bird Johnson<br>(1912–2007) purchased a large French-style chateau from the socialite and<br>heiress Perle Mesta (1889–1975). They decorated the house with French antiques<br>and tapestries that were already in the home, but the foyer was hung with Texas<br>wildflower paintings by Salinas. Lady Bird Johnson was quoted as saying, "I want<br>to see them when I open the door, to remind me of where I come from." At the<br>time of the President Kennedy's assassination, Salinas had completed a scene of<br>a horse drinking titled "Rocky Creek" that was meant to be presented to Kennedy<br>during his ill-fated visit to Dallas. Lyndon Johnson told the Washington press<br>that Porfirio Salinas was "his favorite artist." President Johnson also<br>presented a Salinas painting to President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz of Mexico as an<br>official gift from the United States. The patronage of the President was a<br>tremendous boost to the artist's career and during the 1960s, his work sold<br>briskly for ever higher prices. The Johnsons' Salinas paintings remain in the<br>collection of the LBJ Ranch today. President and Lady Bird Johnson were both<br>advocates and admirers of wildflowers. Lady Bird Johnson will always remain<br>linked to the subject of wildflowers because of her "Beautify America" campaign<br>and the Highway Beautification Act, which was passed by the United States<br>Congress in 1965. As part of that effort, many miles of Texas roadsides were<br>seeded with Texas bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis, the flowers that Salinas is<br>known for painting.<br><br>Death and posthumous reputation<br>Salinas was recognized by the city of his birth, Bastrop, Texas in 1960, when he<br>was fifty years old. He had a solo exhibition at the Witte Museum in San Antonio<br>in 1962. His work was widely published by the New York Graphic Society, which<br>added to his national reputation. In 1967 his work illustrated a book titled<br>Bluebonnets and Cactus that was published in Austin.<br><br>Salinas died on April 18, 1973, after a brief illness. He was memorialized in<br>the City of Austin with Porfirio Salinas Day in 1973. Ruth Goddard wrote a book<br>titled Porfirio Salinas that was published two years after his death. There is a<br>Youth Art Exhibition showcasing work by K-12 students, named after the artist,<br>held each year in Bastrop. In celebration of the centennial of Salinas' birth,<br>the Witte Museum mounted an exhibition titled Porfirio Salinas: Painting South<br>Texas that opened on October 16, 2010, and ran to March 20, 2011.<br><br>Artistic production<br>The professional career of Porfirio Salinas stretched to more than forty years.<br>According to the art historian Jeffrey Morseburg, he is estimated to have<br>painted between two and three thousand works. His work is divided among a number<br>of subjects, but Hill Country landscapes of the Texas bluebonnets predominate.<br>The bluebonnet landscape has remained eternally popular with both collectors of<br>historic Texas paintings and contemporary artists. Salinas also painted many<br>scenes of Texas red oak trees in the autumn and prickly pear cactus. There were<br>also scenes of the Texas desert in the Texas Panhandle and of arid West Texas.<br>Salinas made trips to Mexico and painted rural Mexican villages and the<br>volcanoes that are south of Mexico City. For Mexican American audiences, Salinas<br>painted small scenes of bullfights, cockfights and Mexican fandangos.<br><br>Personal life<br>Salinas married Maria Bonillas, a Mexican woman who worked for the Mexican<br>National Railways, in San Antonio in 1943. They had a single child, Christina<br>Maria Salinas, who was born in 1945. Maria Bonillas Salinas helped manage her<br>husband's career. The Salinas home and studio was located at 2723 Buena Vista<br>Street in San Antonio. It consists of a small stone home with a detached studio.
