Posted on 08/30/2023 6:30:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Thrift stores can be great places to find budget-friendly large frames. But a trip to a Savers location in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 2017 yielded much more for one bargain hunter, with a $4 painting now estimated to be worth as much as $250,000.
According to Bonhams auction house, the artwork was actually an oil panel illustration by the artist Newell Convers Wyeth, father of the more-famous Andrew Wyeth. The painting was one of four cover illustrations for a 1939 edition of the Helen Hunt Jackson novel Ramona.
The dramatic scene portrays the novel’s title character—a half-Scottish, half–Native American orphan living in Southern California after the Mexican-American War—”and her rigid and overbearing foster mother, Señora Moreno.” The book was originally published in 1884.
Related Articles An older gentleman in an olive blazer, blue shirt, and dark pants poses with his hands in the pockets of his pants next to a collage-style painting. Auctioneer Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr Dies at 84, Tracey Emin Plans Margate Community Center, and More: Morning Links for August 22, 2023 Designer Paul Smith Sends Banksy to Auction, Prix Ars Electronica Winners Named, and More: Morning Links for June 20, 2023 The painting was signed by Wyeth in the upper left and in ink on a label affixed to the back of the frame. However, the thrift shopper did not find any initial information through a quick internet search, simply hung it up in their bedroom for several years, and eventually stored it in a closet.
In May of this year, the consigner posted some images of the painting online in a Facebook group called Things Found on Walls after taking the work out while cleaning. The consigner was quickly directed to the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Pennsylvania, which showcases the work of several artists in the Wyeth family, as well as conservator Lauren Lewis.
Lewis drove three hours to meet the painting’s owner in Portsmouth and view the work in person. Lewis’s level of excitement “was the first time the consignor realized it was actually legitimate and valuable,” according to Bonhams.
During Wyeth’s career, the American artist created more than 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books, working for companies like Scribner’s and publications like the Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s Monthly, and Ladies’ Home Journal.
The painting is believed to be most likely a gifted from the publishers Little, Brown and Company to an editor or to the estate of the author. The auction house has given the painting an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It is scheduled to be auctioned on September 19 in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
Lots of thrifters dream of finding an original painting worth lots. Very, very slim to find. Awesome if you are one of the very few, though.
Great story. It's everybody's dream, isn't it?
If you ever get a chance to go to the Brandywine River Museum of Art, take it. It is a magnificent museum and a gorgeous setting. My folks used to live not far from there and I've been many times.
Someday in the future, a thrift store shopper will come across a Hunter Biden painting.
And will get ripped off by paying $4 for it.
After getting the true value, I’d probably sit on it a while and figure out a way to sell it discretely to keep the lousy IRS out of my pockets.
There was a 1st Edition ‘Ramona’ in my grandparents’ book collection, discovered long after they were gone. A very touching story with a very John Steinbeck vibe.
Helen Hunt Jackson?
It will be worth millions.
Beautiful. Thanks.
Helen Marie Fiske
Hunt was her first husband, Jackson was her wealthy second after being widowed. She was pals with Emily Dickinson.
I’ve never seen anything in a thrift shop priced at four dollars. I must be going to the wrong ones.
I have been a huge NC Wyeth fan for decades.
absolutely beautiful
he mastered color like nobody else could
I was just watching some videos about N.C. Wyeth on YouTube a couple of days ago. He apparently wasn’t a big fan of his own illustration work and wanted to do more fine art painting. His grandson related a story about a little girl telling N.C. Wyeth how much she loved his work in “Treasure Island” and Wyeth responded, “Well, you’ll grow out of that.” It’s sad if he didn’t realize just how influential his work really was.
A nude picture of his girlfriend?
You have to have enough knowledge to know what you are looking at - otherwise, you will buy a décor painting produced in a Chinese factory in 2017. Art can be very tricky.
Yes, I think he may have painted in tempera -- he was known as an illustrator, not so much an oil painter.
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