DALLAS, TX.- Sheepherders Camp, 1893, the first large, pastel artwork by artist Frank Reaugh to ever appear at public auction could sell for $60,000 when offered May 16 in Heritage Auctions’ Texas Art Auction in Dallas, capping two weeks of art auctions spanning American, Western, and Illustration art. Measuring 40 inches wide, the artwork represented Texas’ rich and diverse artistic talent in the 1890s at the St. Louis Exposition as well as the Art Institute of Chicago.

“With Sheepherders Camp, Frank Reaugh helped introduce Texas art to the world,” said Atlee Phillips, Director of Texas Art at Heritage. “It is a testament to the quality and importance of this piece that it was included among artworks selected to represent the United States at the World's Fair in St. Louis, where it held its own on an international stage. In fact, the public reception was so positive the work also was placed on display at an important retrospective in Chicago.”

The auction also features Julian Onderdonk’s signature Bluebonnets North of San Antonio, Late Afternoon, circa 1919-21 (est. $50,000+). The native Texans’ paintings of the state’s well-known bluebonnets have set auction records recently, with Blue Bonnet Field, Early Morning, San Antonio Texas, 1914 selling for a record $515,000 at Heritage in 2013.

Also on offer is Onderdonk’s Golden Sunset, Southwest Texas (est. $15,000+) and Valley View of Cloudy Mountain Peak – painted by Julian’s father Robert Jenkins Onderdonk – also appears in the auction as a rare double-sided work (est. $6,000+).

Leading a selection of Post-war examples of Texas art is Porfirio Salinas’ Hunting Season (Fall in Central Texas), 1957 (est. $18,000+), The Posse by Fred Darge (est. $3,000+), and Pumping for Oil, 1951 (est. $3,000+).

Contemporary works include Silent Signals and False Lights, 1985, by Lee N. Smith (est. $5,000+) and From the Roof (Hanging Knife), 1985 (est. $2,500+), sold on behalf of the Prop Foundation of Missoula, Montana to support their charities.