1981 Hon-Chew Hee Oil Painting
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GUEST:
Hon-Chew was a friend of my father's. And they met in Hawaii. And he studied at the California School of Fine Arts. Then he went to France and studied with Léger. And then he went back to Hawaii. And I knew him as Uncle Hon-Chew. Probably his most famous student was Jacqueline Kennedy. He taught her watercolor in Hawaii. He came to our wedding, and we visited his studio about this time, I don't remember the date exactly, because we went every summer to Hawaii with our kids. I saw this painting, and I just fell in love with it. And we bought it from him. We've hung it in our home since then.
APPRAISER:
Do you remember what you paid for the painting?
GUEST:
We paid $1,000.
APPRAISER:
I saw the inscription on the back of the stretcher bar.
GUEST (laughing): Yes.
APPRAISER:
I saw that you made a $200 deposit.
GUEST:
Yes, we did. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
Did he let you take the painting on deposit and then pay him later?
GUEST:
Yes, yes. He knew where we lived. (laughter)
APPRAISER:
Well, I think he's a fascinating character, like a truly international person.
GUEST:
Yes, he was.
APPRAISER:
You know, born in Hawaii, then living in China.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Taking that sort of school of thought and training with Chinese brush painting. Then as you say, off to San Francisco, at 14 apparently, at the San Francisco Art Institute.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And I think that that in and of itself is an interesting education, but then there's the time that he spent in New York training there, and then also obviously in Paris. And as you say, I think the influence by Léger is very apparent in his work.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
This particular painting is oil on canvas and dated 1981. His market has done nothing but go up for years now.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
And interestingly, it's a market that is localized in Hong Kong.
GUEST:
Really, wow.
APPRAISER:
I think somewhat a reflection again of his sort of international character. He has an audience that is more of a global audience than a localized audience.
GUEST:
I didn't know that.
APPRAISER:
I think at auction right now, in Hong Kong, a very conservative auction estimate would be $40,000 to $60,000.
GUEST:
Whoa. (laughing) Oh, thank you Uncle Hon-Chew. That's great. Thank you very much. Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
We had to bite our tongue when you pulled it out of the box. (laughter) We didn't want to let the cat out of the bag.
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