Johannes Bosboom Watercolor, ca 1860
Appraised Value:
$20,000 - $30,000
IMAGE: 1 of 1
Appraisal Video:
Appraised By:
Peter Fairbanks
Paintings & Drawings
President
Montgomery Gallery
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: I used to do a lot of garage saling and a few estate sales, and I found it back in the '70s. It caught my eye. It was priced right. I brought it home and enjoyed it for a few years, and then it sat in a closet for about the last 15 years. I decided to take it out because the glass was so dirty that you couldn't see the painting very well.
APPRAISER: Yes.
GUEST: And so when I took it apart, I got a little excited, because in pulling the nails out, I could see where it was a watercolor, that when the artist painted it, he didn't go all the way to the edge of the painting,
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: and the paper had a little rippled appearance, as if it had been wet and dried.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: And I got excited.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Put it back together, hung it on the wall for a few years, and then I put it back in the closet.
APPRAISER: You know that it's by Johannes Bosboom. He was born in 1817. It's signed over here in the lower right. And of course they put this on the frame as well. It's a lovely painting by him and typical of the work that he does. I think it's probably a later work. He has a wonderful, broad, loose way of painting these Dutch interiors, and he comes from a wonderful tradition of the Dutch church interior painters. And there's a Romantic movement and revival in the 19th century, and he's really at the forefront-- one of the best painters to create an atmosphere and a mood that you see inside. And, of course, the traditional Dutch chandelier that they have in all the churches. This painting was probably put in this frame in the 19th century, and I don't think it's really been out of its frame until you took it out. And it's an original third-quarter- of-the-19th-century frame, and so it's, it's unusual to find all of these pieces all together, because it's really an archaeological item that you have here.
GUEST: (laughing)
APPRAISER: And also, you see these whites here? These have gone a bit brown. I suspect there's been some staining as a result of the backboard, which is probably acidic and not archival. And this can be treated and conserved and those whites brought back with a proper ether bath, if you go to a good paper restorer. And I don't know whether you have any sense of what its worth is today.
GUEST: I haven't got any idea. I don't think I paid more than $100 for it when I bought it, if I paid that.
APPRAISER: Well, I think you'd find that this would sell at a gallery at no less than $20,000 and very likely $30,000.
GUEST: I'm shaking. (laughing)
