1953 James Kenneth Ralston Painting

Appraised on: June 26, 2010

Appraised in: Billings, Montana

Appraised by: Alan Fausel

Category: Paintings & Drawings

Episode Info: Billings, Hour 1 (#1510)

Originally Aired: April 11, 2011

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (2:17)

GUEST: The man on the horse is my grandfather. He was a neighbor of J.K. Ralston on the Missouri Breaks. Culbertson is across the river from there. And he was also a neighbor of Charlie Russell. When my grandfather died at a fairly early age, my grandmother requested that Kenny, as they called him, would paint a picture of my grandfather, which he did. And that was in 1953. My grandfather died in 1924.

APPRAISER: The artist we're dealing with is John Kenneth Ralston. And your grandfather must have known him when he was a much younger man. Ralston was born in 1896.

GUEST: Oh, yes.

APPRAISER: But lived a long time, until 1987. So he's recalling some of his youth. It's a Western painting, and it's a painting that has a lot of associations here in Billings.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: You mentioned he's a neighbor of Charles Russell, who was a very famous Western artist.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And he has a lot of things in common, I think, with Russell. He's a younger generation. But one of the things is the closeness to the land. Ralston's family were ranchers. His first love, his first vocation, was cattle ranching…

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: …before he became a painter.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: We see your grandfather here on horseback.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: I guess he had a distinctive handlebar mustache.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And is this the brand for the family?

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: Now, it looks like he has horses. Did they have horses or cattle?

GUEST: He had horses.

APPRAISER: Horses. Billings is important because Ralston has his studio here in Billings.

GUEST: Right. There's a log cabin studio.

APPRAISER: That's a very common thing to have out here, out west. You had the studio of Charles Russell here in Montana, Remington down in Wyoming. The frame is a Western frame. It's fairly plain, but I don't think I would change it or anything. It's a family painting. It's not something I think you would ever part with.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: He's a lesser light in the firmament, but he's still a good, competent painter. And I would think if you were to insure this I'd probably insure it for about $15,000 these days.

GUEST: $15,000?

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: Great, yeah. That's wonderful.