H.L.A. Culmer Monument Valley Oil, ca. 1900
GUEST:
This was left to my husband from a friend of their family. And every time they would go to this woman's house, he just loved this painting. This is Monument Valley in southeastern Utah, and it's a place where a lot of photographers nowadays love to go and take pictures of beautiful, very strange sandstone formations.
APPRAISER:
And who's the artist of this?
GUEST:
His name was Henry Lavender Adolphus Culmer.
APPRAISER:
Do you know much about him at all?
GUEST:
I know he was a Utah artist, and he was very well thought of. There are a lot of his paintings in prominent Utah family homes, and they seem to hang on to them, they don't seem to go out at auction or anything, so.
APPRAISER:
Well, he is one of Utah's early painters, and one of the most famous for painting the landscapes of Utah. As you said, Henry Lavender Adolphus Culmer was born in England, though.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Came over here when he was about 14 years old with his family because they heard about Mormonism from the missionaries.
GUEST:
Yes, they came across the Plains, and he has actual memoirs that he has published about his trip across the Plains, which is very interesting.
APPRAISER:
Have you been able to identify where this is?
GUEST:
We think it's a formation called Castle Rock. But we think that he might have taken some artistic license with the two peaks. Because most of them aren't that sharp down there.
APPRAISER:
Right. This area here, this rock formation does sort of look somewhat like Castle Rock in there.
GUEST:
Yes, yes, it does.
APPRAISER:
This is a little bit different, there's some other formations it could be. There might be some license, it might be the way he painted it as well. If you learned about Culmer, he was sort of largely self-taught. He worked with some of the early artists such as Kirkland and Lambourne, who were Utah artists. But he was not classically trained. Now, one other influence was he knew Thomas Moran. I don't know if you know his work, he was a very famous painter of the Grand Canyon. And Thomas Moran is known for his beautiful light in his paintings, his paintings of the Grand Canyon. I think you see that up in here, this great light.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
When you see this out here it just emanates out of the painting. It probably could stand a little bit of cleaning. If you look up in here, there's a little bit of dirt and a little grime there. It would brighten up a bit. It's in its original frame, it's a beautiful frame, it's in good condition too. These frames tend to break apart over the years, they're very fragile.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Also it hasn't been touched, it's not lined, it's on its original canvas.
GUEST:
Exactly.
APPRAISER:
So it's a great piece like that. This is oil on canvas, and based on the stretcher and the canvas on this, I would expect this was probably painted around 1900. Now, have you had it appraised at all? Do you know the value?
GUEST:
My husband had one he had for $3,600 in 1972 or '73. And then about four years later it was $4,800.
APPRAISER:
Well, because it's a subject, Monument Valley, and because it's in great condition, this is the type of painting that collectors of Utah landscapes would love this painting. I would put it into auction at about $25,000 to $35,000 for an auction estimate.
GUEST:
I think it's going to stay in the family, though.
APPRAISER:
Good, yeah.
Appraisal Details
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