Clementine Hunter Oil Paintings, ca. 1960
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GUEST:
These are pictures that were purchased from Clementine Hunter by my wife in about 1968-69. At the time, she was going to school in North Louisiana and had heard about the artist, and drove to Melrose Plantation and asked if there were some pictures available. And Clementine offered these two pictures to her, and was very apologetic because that's the only two that she had that day to show. And my wife bought both of them and paid ten dollars apiece. My wife's impression was that she was a very humble individual who was almost embarrassed to be asking money for what she loved to do.
APPRAISER:
These are great-- they're really good-looking. They pop, visually. The images, somewhat naive, typical of Clementine's style, obviously really captured, with great honesty, figures in everyday life, whether fishing, whether involved with hauling cotton, baptisms, weddings, uh, and funerals. There was a, a, a feature about her in "Look" magazine in 1953. But it was really around the 1970s that, uh, people really began to take note in the art community at large. It's interesting, depending upon what you read about her. She painted thousands of paintings. I don't know that we know exactly the number. It's worth noting that there are paintings on the market that bear the distinctive initialed signature of Clementine Hunter's, the C and the H joined. There are some on the market that are dubious. That are not right, that are fakes. I believe each is an original oil on board. Each was probably executed right around circa 1960. I would note that the frames appear to be later than the paintings. Did you have the frames put on afterward, or were they acquired this way? No, they were put on afterwards to try to protect the painting. The market for artists who, during a lot of their lifetime, were not recognized, were not really given their due by the art world, times have changed. On the supposition that each is genuine, and given the extraordinary provenance as you've explained it, I think I would probably want to insure the two together for $10,000.
GUEST:
Whoa. That's incredible. That's a big jump from ten dollars. But I'm going to have to do that now. Get them insured for the $10,000. Now, that's just incredible. Kudos to my wife.
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