Texas History Made Art Subject
.San Antonio Light newspaper, March 30, 1928, Friday.
The drama of events as they are lived, so often dies with its actors and is "interred with their bones," but perhaps, if certain San Antonio women can achieve their dream, these quick flashes of vital fire in the big pan of eternity, so easily blown out, may be reflected for the illumination of all generations.
The Texas Historical and Landmarks assocation, through its president, Miss Nellie Lytle, and its honorary life president, Miss Adina de Zavala, has announced a new purpose for the year of 1928. This objective will be to encourage and discover historical paintings, with the hope that perhaps next spring when the Edgar Davis art contest is held again, those paintings may constitute a new group and therefore a new art picture.
"There has been no conference with Mr. Davis on this subject," Miss de Zavala said. "But there are so many dramatic scenes in Texas history that a bevy of artists, working all their lives, could hardly exhaust the subject. It seems to us that Texas history should have a place along with other native themes when the annual art contest is held in San Antonio. And at any rate, it will be our object to induce artists to paint historical pictures this year."
The historical association assumed its new purpose just a few days ago with the discovery of an unusual painting made by Mrs. Lucy Marshall of West Texas. Mrs. Marshall had studied art in ten lessons, half an hour each, when she was just a child. But a dramatic story told by her famous father, Count Von Meusenbauch, induced her finally to place on canvas a scene showing the lone court signing a treaty with ferocious Comanche chiefs. It was a story that would die with her, and as though those old warriors had come back from the spirit land to guide her hands, she painted a true and realistic picture.
"If one person can do this without training, what a pageant of history we might have if the artist of experience would lend a little effort," Miss de Zavala reflected. "What Washington Irving did for Sleepy Hollow could be done for San Antonio and very quickly."
Miss de Zavala called attention to one dramatic scene in the little village of Refugio, county seat of Refugio county, in 1836.
"A Mexican force was storming the village, and there were only six men on hand," she said. "But of these six, five were Irish. With the women and children they had entered the mission church of Our Lady of Refuge. A cannon was battering their little stronghold to bits.
"There came a lull in the firing, and the six men saw that their enemies had taken a recess, confident of victory, they were interested in something else, possibly a siesta. Out walked the six defenders across a ravine; the cannon had been brought halfway back before they were discovered. With it they held the church and won the fight. How would that be painted for all Texans to see?
