1891 John La Farge Watercolor

Appraised on: June 26, 2004

Appraised in: St. Paul, Minnesota

Appraised by: Peter Fairbanks

Category: Paintings & Drawings

Episode Info: St. Paul, Hour 2 (#902)

Originally Aired: January 10, 2005

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (2:29)

GUEST: I bought it from a lady by the name of Tula Hanly, who was married to, uh, the uncle of my dear friend. And the only thing that I know of it is that I think it is a study for a famous painting that is hung in the Metropolitan in New York. I'm not sure. I don't know.

APPRAISER: Do you know something about the artist?

GUEST: No, I don't.

APPRAISER: You know that it's John La Farge.

GUEST: Yes, I do know that.

APPRAISER: Well, I think it's a very interesting work. Um, first of all, I have some knowledge of Tula Hanly and she donated. and they donated part of her collection to the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts. Uh, she was Egyptian by descent and did a wonderful belly dance on the bar for the audience, which is kind of fun. But back to the painting and John La Farge. John La Farge has a wonderful connection with Minneapolis. He did a number of the murals for your state capitol here.

GUEST: Oh, I didn't know that.

APPRAISER: And this painting was done in 1891 of... and it's of Moorea from Cook's Bay on the beach. There's a couple of things I'm really fascinated by. First of all, he did this as a field sketch. So you have here some of the notations about the colors that he was going to use, the afterglow that was occurring in the afternoon, and over here, the, uh, the blues that he was using, so that if he wanted to, he could work it back up into a larger, uh, painting from this, uh, original watercolor. Down here is a label from an exhibition where it was at one time, uh, and, uh... or it may be the... the collector's labels-- one or the other. What did you pay for it again? $550?

GUEST: Yeah, $550.

APPRAISER: Well, I think your picture is probably worth around $30,000. Uh, if you were to sell it, somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000. Many of the watercolors that John La Farge does, there are wonderful water-lily paintings he does that are greater detail that can bring $300,000, $350,000. But, um, this is still a very finished watercolor done on location, and I think it's a lovely object.