Called the "dean of Texas painters," Frank Reaugh was born near Jacksonville, Illinois, on December 29, 1860. In 1876 he and his family settled on a farm near Terrell, Texas. His mother taught him natural history, and his father taught him to work with his hands. Later, Frank made his own picture frames and patented several inventions.

Reaugh honed his skills by copying reproductions from popular magazines, and he taught himself cattle and sheep anatomy. He also sketched longhorn cattle that were brought up from South Texas to fatten on the prairies nearby. As early as 1883 Reaugh began sketching–often from the saddle–cattle drives and roundups near Wichita Falls. He later enlarged and refined his sketches in his studio, creating paintings such as (1894). Reaugh's formal studies began at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts in 1884–85 and continued at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1888–89. While in Europe he copied paintings in the Louvre and studied paintings in Belgium and Holland. Reaugh exhibited widely, including at the World's Columbian Exposition, the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He also joined the Society of Western Artists, exhibiting with them all over the United States.

Reaugh continued his annual sketching trips to the Texas Plains until he was almost eighty. He had been taking students, including Alexandre Hogue and Florence McClung, on trips there since 1910. Reaugh died in Dallas on May 6, 1945, and is buried in the Terrell cemetery. The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum at Canyon, Texas, is the repository for Reaugh's works and papers.