Happy Little Clouds

Oil painting by Bob Ross leads Bonhams Skinner’s online sale of American art

Bonhams Skinner’s September sale American Art Online saw a 75 percent sell through rate, achieving a total of $560,680, with two works by television personality, painter and art instructor Bob Ross (1942-1995) landing among the top ten lots. The undeniable highlight of the sale was when Ross’s landscape, A Misty Mountain Lake Below Snow-Capped Peaks, took the top lot when it sold for $51,200, more than five times its low estimate of $10,000.

Bob Ross (1942-1995), A Misty Mountain Lake Below Snow-Capped Peaks. Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in. Estimate: $10/15,000 SOLD: $51,200“We were pleased to have set the record (according to AskArt) for the artist’s work at auction, but this is hardly the first time his paintings have brought tens of thousands of dollars,” says Bonhams Skinner vice president Robin Starr. “He continues to be popular, indicated by the 5.93 million subscribers to his YouTube channel. No doubt nostalgia plays a part in his popularity, but in troubled times, his calm presence and sheer joy of painting as he creates his ‘happy little trees’ is refreshing.”

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Portrait of Richard Walden Hale, Jr., 1917. Charcoal on paper, 245/8 x 18½ in. Estimate: $20/30,000 SOLD: $35,840

Another oil by Ross, Alaskan Landscape from 1978, earned the fifth spot in the top ten, when it sold for $32,000, also soaring above its high estimate of $9,000.

“The Rosses were the final two lots of the auction,” continues Starr. “They had very competitive bidding both on the telephone and with online bidders from several platforms, but bidding was brisk right out of the gate with lot 1, a Benjamin Champney that far exceeded its estimate before selling at $23,040. Many of the bronzes included in the sale were also sold after a frenzy of bidding, including lot 26, the Slavonic Dancer by Harriet Frishmuth which sold for $38,400.”

Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880-1980), Slavonic Dancer, 1921. Bronze with a dark brown patina, 13½ in. Estimate: $10/20,000 SOLD: $38,400

Other highlights include a tempera and oil on board by Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975). The piece, Water Story, was a study for Benton’s 1930 mural The History of Water, which was commissioned for the exterior of a Washington, D.C., drugstore. The mural was dismantled shortly after completion when the drugstore went out of business. It was placed in the basement, where it sat unnoticed until it was rediscovered in 1985. The study fetched just over its low estimate of $30,000.

Also of note was the sale of a charcoal portrait from 1917 by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) which sold for nearly $36,000.

Portrait of Richard Walden Hale, Jr., depicting the son of Richard Hale, Sr., and Mary Newbold Patterson, a cousin of the artist on the Newbold side of the family. The piece crested its high estimate, selling for $35,840.

One of the most interesting aspects of the results of Bonhams Skinner’s American Art Online sale is the wide spectrum of eras, genres and styles represented in the top 10 lots.

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), Water Story (Study for The History of Water). Tempera and oil on board, 20 x 18 in. Estimate: $30/40,000 SOLD: $32,000

Starr says, “As younger collectors become more and more involved in the market, traditional American art continues to expand to encompass a great breadth of works, as the Rosses indicate. At the same time, works that appeal to newer bidders are drawing these same bidders to appreciate styles and periods that they might not have explored before.”