Frank Reaugh’s ‘Sheepherders Camp’ set a record for the Texas artist, selling for $437,000 at the May 16 Texas Art auction in Dallas. Heritage Auctions images

DALLAS – Frank Reaugh’s lost masterpiece Sheepherders’ Camp, 1893, set a $437,000 record for the artist May 16 when it took top lot honors in Heritage Auctions’ $926,000 selection of Texas Art. The large pastel painting spans 40-inches, a rarity from an artist known for impressionistic depictions of West Texas.

LiveAuctioneers.com provided absentee and Internet live bidding.

“It’s been called the most important Reaugh painting to emerge in the last few years and I knew the collecting world would be excited to learn that it existed,” said Atlee Philips, director of Texas art at Heritage Auctions. “Far more important than that is its contribution to our greater understanding of Texas art.”

Philips said five bidders competed for the work, which doubled its estimate and more than doubled the previous record of $178,000 before selling to a Dallas bidder on the phone.

The action spanned landscape paintings and sculpture from the late 19th century to Modern and Contemporary work.

Julian Onderdonk’s Bluebonnets North of San Antonio, Late Afternoon, circa 1919-21, sold for $93,750.

A favorite subject for many Texas artists, Hill Country in Spring, 1958, by Porfirio Salinas brought $30,000, and Robert William Wood’s Hill Country, 1943, ended at $25,000.

 Madonna and Child, 1963, by Charles Umlauf, a momentous bronze from the estate of Ruther Carter Stevenson and sold to benefit Fort Worth’s Amon Carter Museum, earned $25,000 against a $5,000 estimate.

Hunting Season (Fall in Central Texas), 1957, by Porfirio Salinas realized: $17,500.

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.