Rio Grande
Towards the end of a long and productive life, the artist Tom Lea reflected on the fact that his paintings were generally not displayed for public view, but rather in the homes of friends. He considered his work a kind of personal conversation with his friends, and that pleased him.
By the time Tom Lea passed away in January 2001at the age of 93, those friends included the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush and his wife Laura, as well as thousands of admirers inspired by his paintings and books. Some knew his public murals of the 1930’s; others his World War II paintings published in Life Magazine. Many read his best-selling novels, The Brave Bulls and The Wonderful Country, and his history of The King Ranch; still others enjoyed the paintings he made of the great Southwest. Rarely did anyone have an inkling of the magnitude of his output. It is rare to find an artist to whom painting and writing are complementary.
Laura Bush traveled to meet Tom Lea and his wife, Sarah, soon after her husband was elected Governor of Texas. She understood Lea’s stature. Her grandparents had lived in El Paso, so she knew Lea’s 1938 Pass of the North mural in the Federal Courthouse and Southwest mural in the El Paso Public Library. A voracious reader, she had read his books and, as the daughter of a veteran, she was familiar with his work as a war correspondent.
That first introduction in 1995 led to a fast friendship. Laura Bush wanted her husband to know the Leas so she invited them to Austin. In addition to a night at the Governor’s Mansion, a dinner was held that included Lady Bird Johnson, a longtime Lea friend. Governor Bush topped off the evening by reading his favorite parts of the recently published Tom Lea, An Oral History for all the dinner guests.
Laura Bush later found a Tom Lea quote in his autobiography that she shared with her husband. It struck a chord with the Governor, providing words that expressed his hopeful outlook: “Sarah and I live on the east side of our mountain. It is the sunrise side, not the sunset side. It is the side to see the day that is coming, not the side to see the day that is gone. The best day is the day coming…” Governor Bush often used this quote during his Texas tenure. He also shared it in his speech when accepting the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
After his election in 2000, George W. Bush asked his wife to select a Tom Lea oil painting for the Oval Office. Tom Lea was weak and blind at the time, but it brought him great happiness to know that his work spoke to his friend. Lea died on January 29, 2001 and hundreds of friends from across the United States attended his memorial service, including the First Lady of the United States. Soon after, the El Paso Museum of Art received a call from the White House requesting the loan of “Rio Grande,” a desert landscape that speaks of space, sun, cloud, rock, mountain, sand, and the life that springs from rocky soil.
Sarah Lea was invited to be a guest at the White House a year after her husband’s passing. When greeted in the family quarters, the President told her, “I sure like looking at your husband’s painting every day.” The personal conversation between the work of Tom Lea and his friends continues.
Written for Cowboys and Indians, By Adair Margo.
