Robert Wood Bluebonnets Oil, ca. 1930
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APPRAISER:
So, John, you've been looking at this painting for a long time, you said.
GUEST:
All my life, yes, sir.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, uh, where was it hanging?
GUEST:
It was hanging in my mom's living room. She got it from her aunt, and it was given to her aunt from Robert Wood-- he was one of her tenants. The story I understand is that he couldn't make rent, and so he offered a painting as payment for that. And then from there, my aunt offered it to my mom cause no one else in her family really liked it, and my mom loved it.
APPRAISER:
Okay, and so the painting, as you mentioned, is, Robert Wood was the artist, right?
GUEST:
Yes, sir.
APPRAISER:
Did, did your mom tell you any, anything about him at all?
GUEST:
All she said is that he lived with my aunt for a brief period of time in the early 1900s. It was probably '20s or '30s, if I'm not mistaken.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. That seems to fit, timewise. Robert Wood is an interesting artist. A long-lived artist, he lived... Born in 1889, lived to 1979, about 90 years, and lived just about everywhere.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
He lived in Texas, he lived in California, he lived in Colorado, he lived in Woodstock, New York. But he was in San Antonio from 1923 to about 1941. He was divorced in '25 and might have been the time that he was living at your aunt's.
GUEST:
Sure.
APPRAISER:
And, and it's very f, common that a lot of artists pay in kind with, with paintings. Wood painted a lot of different scenes. He painted California, he painted the, the Tetons, he painted the, the Colorado Rockies, but he also painted Texas. It wouldn't be a complete ROADSHOW from, from Texas without a bluebonnet painting.
GUEST:
Sure. Well, the state flower.
APPRAISER:
The state flower. The Texans love their bluebonnets.
GUEST:
Yes, sir. Um... Definitely.
APPRAISER:
Now, did you have this painting reframed at all?
GUEST:
My mom did in the '70s.
APPRAISER:
She did, yeah. It has a very '70s look to it.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Probably might want to think about putting a different frame on it sometime. Maybe more of a 1920s frame or '30s frame.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Now, one of the things about Wood is, he's so prolific, that really has depressed his market. He's, did far too many paintings. They aren't rare enough. And the other thing about him, he was so deft at doing, he was very quick. In my business, we say he's a little slick.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
I mean, he's almost like a commercial artist. So, his prices have never really gone up as much as you might hope for his works. And generally, for most average Woods, you're looking at $3,000 to $5,000 at an auction estimate. But when you get the bluebonnets, it's a different story entirely. It's only of interest here in Texas, but they go crazy for these paintings. If this were to, to come up, I would have to put an auction estimate on this of $15,000 to $25,000, and probably expect to get more than that at auction.
GUEST:
Oh, wow.
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