1885 Oliver Dennett Grover Oil
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GUEST:
I bought it at a yard sale. It was in a very ugly frame that it didn't fit. But I saw it was on wood, and I've never picked up a painting, but because I'd seen on the Antiques Roadshow paintings on wood, I knew it was old. I saw the date on it. And they wanted five dollars for it and I thought, "Well, I'll take a chance and pick it up."
APPRAISER:
The artist here is Oliver Dennett Grover. This fellow, Grover, is from the Midwest and that's why you probably found this painting here. He's from Chicago and he studied in Europe. This painting is actually a Venetian scene. This one was done in 1885. It's signed down here and signed "Venice 1885." He was born in 1861 so it was done when he was 24 years old. It's a beautiful little subject, very reminiscent of the work of Sargent or Chase, other great American artists. One of the things I like about it is his sparing use of paint. He just really captures it with just a few brushstrokes. Even so that he just barely covers the board that it's on. You can actually see the grain of the board coming through here. And so he's a very talented artist even at this young age. He's able to capture that light and the colors with just a few brushstrokes. He was a very competent artist. One of the things about this is it's filthy dirty.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
If you pull this up, you'll see where the frame was and you can see this color down here where the frame rubbing is below. Most of this courtyard would be that color.
GUEST:
Oh, my.
APPRAISER:
So it's very, very dark. And this light here would be almost white that would be cascading in there.
GUEST:
I thought that was damage.
APPRAISER:
No, that's probably close to the real color. So I'd recommended getting a nice cleaning on this. The light will come out. It would be a beautiful painting. You paid five dollars for this?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
You didn't bargain with the guy at all, did you?
GUEST:
No, I didn't. I figured for five dollars it wouldn't hurt me one way or the other.
APPRAISER:
I think you got a pretty good deal. I would say we'd probably get about $3,000 to $5,000 for this painting at auction.
GUEST:
Cool, cool.
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