Portrait of Texas legend Sam Houston returns to SMU campus

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Portrait of Texas legend Sam Houston returns to SMU campus

10:49 PM CDT on Tuesday, May 12, 2009

By HOLLY K. HACKER / The Dallas Morning News
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UNIVERSITY PARK – His hair is whiter, but he's got the strong nose and chin.

He stands a couple inches shorter but commands the same presence.

Yes, Sam Houston IV definitely looks like his great-grandfather.

The younger Houston, 77, joined a family reunion of sorts Tuesday at Southern Methodist University. The campus recently dedicated a life-size portrait of the elder Sam Houston, first president of the Republic of Texas and one of its most colorful characters.

Just about everyone remarked on the family resemblance. Everyone, that is, but Houston IV.

"If you're trying to get me to look like him," Houston told a photographer as he posed under the portrait, "it ain't going to work."

The oil-on-canvas picture has a story almost as interesting as "the general" himself. It was painted in 1902 by Henry Arthur McArdle, an Irish immigrant drawn to Texas history. A historian and collector named James T. DeShields donated the work to SMU in 1929. (Unconfirmed rumor has it that his daughters received free tuition in return.)

Then, in the 1940s, SMU loaned the painting to the Dallas Historical Association. But, as sometimes happens with things borrowed, the association forgot to return it. SMU forgot to ask for it back.

And so a five-year loan turned into a 50-year term. SMU finally reclaimed the painting in 1996, after some local historians found it in storage at Fair Park.

Houston looked like he'd seen battle at San Jacinto all over again. The painting was torn, dirty and chipped. "It was terrible," said Dorothy Garland, a Dallas art collector, 1946 SMU graduate and campus library supporter.

So Garland and others raised $40,000 to restore Sam Houston to his former artistic glory.

Now, the portrait hangs in DeGolyer Library, sharing space with copies of Houston's letters and speeches and even some Republic of Texas currency. Houston stands in a log cabin, wearing a dark suit and woolen Cherokee blanket. Behind him hangs a Texas map and a picture of his buddy, Andrew Jackson.

Sam Houston IV worked in the steel business but never entered politics. He's a good-natured, plainspoken ambassador of Texas history, sharing family tales with curious students across the state.

Fourth-graders always ask the most interesting questions, such as, "Did you ever know the general?"

"No," Houston tells them. "He's a little bit older than me.