Andrew Loomis Oil Painting, ca. 1930
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APPRAISER:
So this is a charming-looking scene. What do you, what do you think's going on here?
GUEST:
I think this boy might be in a little bit of trouble. Got his ball in the flower bed there. And Mom doesn't look too happy.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, she looks none too pleased, she's got the wagging finger right there. I'm sure, uh, many of us can relate to this scene from our childhood.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And tell me a little bit about the painting. How, how did you come by it?
GUEST:
I bought it at a rummage sale a few years ago.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
Less than ten bucks.
APPRAISER:
And do you know who the artist is?
GUEST:
Andrew Loomis.
APPRAISER:
Andrew Loomis, yes. It's signed quite clearly.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And he was best known for being an illustrator, but he was, actually, he was also very well known as a, as an educator.
GUEST:
Huh.
APPRAISER:
He wrote a series of books, how-to books. The first one is "Fun with Your Pencil," I believe it was called. And that was published in 1939. So these books were really, really popular and influenced a whole generation of illustrators and art students about drawing, and how to do figure drawing, that kind of thing, so... But what we're dealing with here is the illustration art side of his career. And he was from New York state originally-- born there in 1892. But mainly connected with Chicago. Spent quite a lot of time there, set up his own design studio, his own, his own business there. Uh, he'd previously worked in advertising for companies who worked with Coca-Cola, Lucky Strikes, um... Kellogg's-- all those sort of things. But this one was probably done for a magazine. We don't know which one. Looking at the costume and just the overall feel of it, it may have been painted in the 1930s or so. This is oil on canvas. And it, it tells a very nice story here. It's an interesting market for illustration art just now. Uh, for many years, the American art market was really very much focused on 19th-century paintings-- you know, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, that kind of thing. And while there's still a lot of interest in those fields, they've kind of been taken over by Western art, modernism, and very much illustration art. Led by the great titans of illustration art-- artists like Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth. Now, Mr. Loomis isn't quite of that caliber, but he's still very well regarded. You know, you could think of him as sort of second or third tier, perhaps, of illustration artists. At auction, you should be looking at, comfortably, $4,000 to $6,000.
GUEST:
Nice!
APPRAISER:
Not bad, right?
GUEST:
Very nice.
APPRAISER:
Not a bad return.
GUEST:
That's awesome, thank you.
APPRAISER:
Good. Well, I hope you're pleased with that.
GUEST:
Yes, very much.
APPRAISER:
I hope you continue to go to rummage sales.
GUEST:
Oh, definitely.
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