Antiques Roadshow USA: Harriet Frishmuth piece valued
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
Antiques Roadshow saw the owner of a valuable painting lose her balance when she found out its whopping price tag.
The PBS series welcomed a guest who brought in a stunning painting to be valued by expert Betty Krulik, after getting the blessing of her dying aunt to keep it.
“About six years ago, my aunt was dying of cancer but she invited family members to come through her home and choose whatever they’d like to have”, she explained.
“And she would say yes or no if that’s what she wanted you to have.
“But I was immediately drawn to this painting and Aunt Marge said: ‘Good eye.'
“She said she knew the artist back in the 1940s, Olin Travis.
“She wanted to help him out, so she gave him $75 plus $15 a month to do this painting for her”.
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Giving some background on the artist, Krulik commented: “Olin Travis was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, he went to the Chicago Art Institute School, graduated in 1914 and he became a teacher there.
“Eventually, by 1921, he moved back to Dallas and he did fall in love and marry a girl from the Ozarks in about 1923.
“Working in Dallas, he decided to open a summer art school and created an art colony in the Ozarks in about 1926”.
Delving into the detail of the “beautiful painting”, Krulik said it was an oil painting on Masonite which only started to be used by artists in the 1930s.
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She also remarked that it was signed by Travis in the lower left corner with his initials “OT” in the bottom right.
Summarising, Krulik commented: “What this picture has is the trifecta: it’s got perfect provenance, it’s in excellent condition in its original frame and it’s a really good subject matter for the artist.
“Most of the artist’s market is in Dallas, Texas, because that’s where he’s known and he’s the native son.
“But I love the Arkansas subject matter, the great impasto, and the value is about $10,000 for insurance purposes.”
When she heard the extortionate figure, the guest’s eyes bulged as she wobbled, leaning onto the painting’s stand for balance.
“I did not expect that! Whoa, holy cow! That takes my breath away, good Lord,” she said.
Krulik commented: “She was right, you do have a good eye”.
The guest then asked: “Wow. Where’s my chair?”
In the final few moments, the expert asked how much the owner thought it could be worth, replying: “I thought maybe $1,500, maybe”.
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on PBS.
