Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

It was in my grandfather's home up until he passed away in 1983 in Buffalo, New York. That's when I inherited the picture. He loved the Arts and Crafts movement, with the Roycroft group that was in East Aurora and was involved with them and interested in them, and ultimately purchased the picture.

APPRAISER

And the artist is?

GUEST

Alexis Fournier. From what I can find out on, on the internet, he was involved in the Arts and Crafts movement and loved to paint landscapes, and was in Buffalo and also in Indiana. The letter that accompanies the picture tells me it was painted in Indiana.

APPRAISER

He was a very colorful character. He was born in 1865 in Minnesota and he died in 1948. Grew up between Minnesota and Wisconsin and basically lived in Minneapolis for quite a few years. Became an artist, traveled kind of, well, quite widely for artistic training. Like so many American artists, he traveled to Paris and studied at the Acadmie Julian in Paris, as well as becoming a great devotee of the Barbizon school and the Barbizon painters, the most famous of whom is probably Jean-Franois Millet. Their veneration of nature, their kind of romanticized view of nature, made a huge impression on him, and he became a part of an American Barbizon movement when he came back. He was quite successful as a painter, and he became interested in the Arts and Crafts movement and the Roycroft Association, which was in and around Buffalo and East Aurora, New York.

GUEST

Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER

He became the sort of resident painter of the Roycrofter group. You have here on your painting an example of a wonderful Arts and Crafts frame, which is, I believe, an original frame to the painting. So, it enhances this package and this Arts and Crafts connection.

GUEST

There's a small patch on the back that says my grandfather paid $500 for it.

APPRAISER

And it's also inscribed on the reverse by the artist with the title, which I believe is, "An October Rain?"

GUEST

"After an October Rain."

APPRAISER

"After an October Rain."

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

Do you have any idea what it might be worth?

GUEST

I don't. I looked online, and it seems to me that paintings of his this size range between $4,000 and $6,000.

APPRAISER

That is true of the average painting.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

Which this is definitely not. And one of the things that makes this worth more is that very specific Brown County location.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

Because it will have a tremendous appeal to, particularly, Indiana collectors. An auction estimate on this picture today might be in the $25,000 to $35,000 range.

GUEST

Oh, that's... wonderful. That's really, really good news. I'm, makes me honored to have it and honored that my grandfather took such good care of it, and I do the same. Thank you.

APPRAISER

Well, and I would suggest an insurance value at the high end of that or maybe a little more, maybe as much as 40.

GUEST

Wow. Thank you.

APPRAISER

Oh, thank you.

GUEST

That's, that's wonderful. I swore I wasn't going to cry. I'm, like, stunned. (sighs) That's wonderful.