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Harvey has been honored with museum exhibitions at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1992; National Archives, Washington, DC, 1991; Gilcrease Museum, 1982; National Academy of Design, New York, NY, 1963.

Known for paintings closely linked in mood and subject matter to Edouard Cortes (1882-1962), Gerald Harvey Jones creates romanticized street scenes depicting turn of the century towns in America that capture the physical aspects of period architecture and transportation.

Born in 1933, Harvey grew up in the hill country west of San Antonio, an area rich in Texas history whose features have attract generations of artists. “As a child, I would spend hours listening to my father talk of the ranch life and frontier days of Texas,” he says. “My paintings have never been literal representations. They are part firsthand experience and part dreams generated by my dad’s stories.”

Harvey graduated cum laude from North Texas State University in Denton with an industrial arts degree and then went on to teach for several years in Austin. In 1964, he abandoned his teaching position and focused solely on his fine art career.

“The ultimate goal of my paintings is to elicit from the viewer an emotional reaction and involvement in the scene.

Harvey often relies on input from cowhands on the 160,000-acre Spade Ranch along the Colorado River in west Texas where he has been a guest for more than 25 years. Their critique helps him to sharpen not only the fine details such as worn chaps and boots, but also the sentiment behind a hard days work. “ I try to convey the overall feeling of rugged individualism.” Harvey passed away in 2018.