Oil Paint

A vibrant oil painting of a woman and flowers against a striped green, orange, and yellow background by Texas artist Donald Vogel circa 1970s. Signed in lower left corner. Hung in a gold frame with a tan mat.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Donald S. Vogel began his formal art training at the Witte Memorial Museum in San Antonio when he was seventeen. After graduation, he moved to Chicago in 1936 to enroll in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist rooms of the Institute, a new world opened up to him, one that would forever influence the direction of his work. He saw art that dealt with the effects of atmosphere and light. The subjects and techniques used by these painters conveyed a sense of happiness, exuberance, and pleasure, which offered a stark contrast to the world outside stifled by the Great Depression. Feeling the pinch of the Depression, Vogel left the Art Institute in 1940, and was accepted on the WPA Easel Project. The freedom to paint at all hours focused his interest on the seemingly endless variations of light and atmosphere. In 1942, Vogel moved to Dallas shortly after the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts gave him a one-manned show. While working first as a set designer and then as technical director at the Dallas Little Theater, Vogel spent his free time at the easel. In 1951, Vogel and his wife Peggy, alongside Dallas arts patron Betty McLean, opened the Betty McLean Gallery. It was the first gallery in Texas to deal in modern art on an international level. In 1954, the Vogels moved to a five-acre site north of Dallas and opened Valley House Gallery. The new setting at Valley House deeply inspired Vogel, serving as a source for ideas, and providing a place of serenity and contemplation.

H 17.25 in. x W 14.25 in. x D 1.5 in.

H 12 in. x W 9 in.