W. Herbert Dunton Portrait Oil, ca. 1925
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GUEST:
This painting came from my grandfather, and he was born in 1902, and lived in Cincinnati his whole life. And he seemed to like this Western art. I'm thinking he bought it around 1930. Somewhere in there. It's by William Dunton. And the guy is Ben Lilly, who was a famous hunter. Killed the last bear in the Gila Wilderness, I think, the last grizzly bear. My grandfather died in the early '90s, and my parents had it since then. And then I was just back east for my dad's memorial...
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh.
GUEST:
...and my mom gave it to us, and we carried it back on the plane with us.
APPRAISER:
One of my favorite things about looking at paintings is often looking at the back of the paintings...
GUEST:
Yeah, yup.
APPRAISER:
...because there are always interesting things to see. And when there isn't anything interesting, that's also interesting, too. But in this case, we've got a wonderful inscription and a label from the frame shop in Cincinnati where it was sold.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
I was wondering if you might read to us this inscription.
GUEST:
Certainly. It says "portrait sketch Lilly, big game hunter and scout, "age 70 years, by W. Buck Dunton, Taos, New Mexico."
APPRAISER:
(chuckling): Ben Lilly was, was quite a character, as you said.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Who was it that he guided? It was, uh…
GUEST:
Oh, Roosevelt, yeah-- yeah.
APPRAISER:
Roosevelt, yeah. He's like this mix of John Muir and Rambo.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
I mean, he is killing bears and cougars with a knife. From the reading I've done about Lilly, he didn't smoke, he didn't drink. We know his death date, December 17, 1936. If this is when he's 70, this would have been done 1925 or, or '26.
GUEST:
Hm.
APPRAISER:
And the artist, Buck Dunton, he didn't even get to Taos until around 1915, permanently. He didn't, he visits there in 1912.
GUEST:
Hm.
APPRAISER:
But he moves there in, in 1915. Lilly was already there by 1911. So when exactly they struck up a friendship, I, I don't know. But based on that inscription, it's going to be around 1925 or '26 that this was done. And at that point, Dunton is well established as one of the Taos Society of Artists and is quite successful in his own right. It makes sense that your grandfather bought it in Cincinnati, because one of his fellow society members, Sharp, in particular, had deep connections to Cincinnati, and the Taos Society of Artists were showing and selling paintings in Cincinnati. Dunton is on a "we don't know where it's going to stop" rise in value. Even though this is only seven-and-a-half by five inches, it's a little oil on canvas, it has the things we want from Dunton. It has some really beautiful color and this intense brushwork. I mean, it, it's almost like a sculpture. It's very three-dimensional. At auction today, conservatively, I would say it's worth about $12,000 to $18,000.
GUEST:
Okay. Wow. Good, I'm glad it's not worth more than that.
APPRAISER:
(laughs)
GUEST:
(laughing): That way we can hang on to it.
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