James Hope Paintings, ca. 1875
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GUEST:
Well, I know that they are painted by James Hope, and they have been in my husband's family for years. My husband's great-grandfather, I believe, bought these paintings from James Hope.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
James Hope, I was told, is from over in Europe. I'm not sure, somewhere. And he came over and apprenticed as a wheelwright and was injured. And because he was injured he went into painting.
APPRAISER:
That's exactly true. He was... Hope is an important American painter. He was born in 1818, and came over when he was about 12 to Canada. And then the story of injuring the ankle and painting. He went on to painting portraits and then landscapes. But he was born in Scotland, came here, and really established himself in New York as a portrait painter before he went into landscapes. But these two paintings are different. Do you know the subjects of these?
GUEST:
Well, this is Yosemite, Bridalveil Falls, and this is Watkins Glen, New York.
APPRAISER:
Okay. This one, yes, it is Watkins Glen. You see, it's signed "Hope" and dated 1872. So this is almost his very first year in Watkins Glen. He retired there and painted there. This painting is a little different. This is Yosemite. Now, when you first brought this in, I had a hard time figuring out is this Bridalveil or is that Yellowstone Falls or is that Vernal Falls? It has elements of all of them. And somebody came by and said, "That looks like El Capitan."
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
There's a reason for that. And the reason is he never went there. And he only knew these from sketches Albert Bierstadt brought back. So his paintings of Yosemite look very different from his paintings of Watkins Glen, because they were all done after copying sketches and photographs. So, you'll see a very overall flatness to this.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
His actual rock formations are not as exact either, so they're a little off. So all this is very different when you start comparing that...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
...with this here. This is known as Rainbow Falls in Watkins Glen. Here's the little rainbow, and he points that out. Then you have all these atmospheric qualities here-- the light, the light coming through back here, all these beautiful observations that you would only have if you were there to see this, which he didn't have in this thing, so it's a much more important painting because of that. Have you had these appraised at all?
GUEST:
No, we haven't. I was told that this was painted from a picture that he had that's in the family, somewhere.
APPRAISER:
So you never had them appraised or anything?
GUEST:
No, I sure haven't.
APPRAISER:
Well, the value on these have gone up a lot recently. Years ago, they would only sell for $4,000 or $5,000. They recently spiked. A very large painting of this sold for a lot of money recently. This one here, because it's not the observed reality, is probably worth about $10,000 to $15,000. It's an important subject, but it's not the... his best work.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
This is his best work.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
One like this, probably be worth about $20,000 to $30,000.
GUEST:
Whoa! That has always been my favorite, I love that one.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, it's a great painting.
GUEST:
Oh, it's just gorgeous.
APPRAISER:
As I said, the atmosphere of the light, all that, it's just so much more important than this one.
GUEST:
Oh, that's wonderful.
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