Antiques Roadshow

I had gone to an estate sale which I had previews online and I'd seen in one of the pictures a picture in the distance leaning against a wall on the floor and I thought that's kind of neat so when I got there I made sure I was first in line and I went right directly to it didn't have a clue who it was but I knew I loved it and you remember what you paid for it I paid $40 per 40 okay and how long ago was that probably four five years okay and the artist is of course Morris Brown Morris Brown she's very much associated with Southern California he was born in Hungary originally and then moved at a young age to New York where he studied art study with William Eric chase who was a major artist and teacher at that time but the big year for him was 1909 and that's when he moved to San Diego and he fell in love with the landscape and he fell in love with the intensity of the light there and responded to it it's very interesting esoteric philosophies whose interests and things like theosophy and transcendentalism and so he believed in the unity of man and nature so when he was painting that was really an expression of them this is a royal paint on canvas in terms of when it was done it's a little hard to say but he moved there in 1909 1910 he died in the 1940s I think it's fair to assume it was done twenties thirties it has a number of things going for it a it's just a really nice painting it's a really nice example vial the other two things are it's in the original frame and collectors love that and finally what I love to see in a painting is it's really really dirty no no no need to apologize that's a good thing in our world so it's that's actually a very good thing now there's a very strong market for California Impressionism and particularly Southern California and impressions and he also worked in the East Coast you don't get so much at auction for the wrist works it's really this kind of thing that people want and although the title in the back is fairly generic the road to the hills that could be anywhere we know that this is Southern California so you bought it for $40 lot of reporting would you be surprised if I told you it was worth at auction ten to fifteen thousand that's that would be awesome yeah it's pretty good return I think pretty good return on your money you