The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston history

Returning to Texas in 1909, Onderdonk began portraying the distinctive surroundings of his state in his signature depictions of bluebonnets, captured at different times of day and in all seasons.

Julian Onderdonk, Afternoon, Southwest Texas, 1912, oil on canvas, Bobbie and John Nau Collection.

Julian Onderdonk, Blue Bonnets and Cactus in the Rain, San Antonio, Texas, 1914, oil on panel, William J. Hill Collection.

In 1917, the museum site was dedicated by the Houston Public School Art League (later the Houston Art League) with the intention of becoming a public art museum.

The first museum building was opened to the public in 1924.

Walker Evans, New York City, 1928–29, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Anthony G. Cronin Memorial Collection, Museum purchase funded by various donors. © Walker Evans Archive, the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Josef Sudek, Flower, 1952, bromoil print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Isabel B. and Wallace S. Wilson, the Manfred Heiting Collection. © Estate of Josef Sudek

Jerry N. Uelsmann, Experimental Design Project Using Photographic Materials, 1958, gelatin silver print with collage, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund, the Manfred Heiting Collection. © Jerry Uelsmann

Augmented by museum purchases, the permanent collection numbered 12,000 objects by 1970.

In 1974, John and Audrey Jones Beck placed on long-term loan fifty Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces, augmenting the museum's already strong Impressionist collection.

Also in 1976, the photography collection was established with Target Stores’ first corporate grant to the museum.

Ishimoto Yasuhiro, Untitled, 1995, silver dye bleach print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of the artist in memory of Ishimoto Shigeru. © Kochi Prefecture, photo by Yasuhiro Ishimoto, collection of the Museum of Art, Kochi

In 2001, the MFAH, established the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), the leading research institute for 20th-century Latin American and Latino art.

Julian Onderdonk and the Texan Landscape celebrates the publication of the first catalogue raisonné of the artist, in October 2016.