A guest on Antiques Roadshow showed off a painting she had purchased for $9.99 and was surprised at how much her abstract piece could fetch if she sold it to a gallery.
The 1947 painting, called ‘The Prophet’, was the work of American artist John Ferren, who was born in Oregon in 1905 and first studied art in San Francisco, as appraiser Nan Chisholm pointed out to the guest.
The guest said she never spends more than $9.99 on art, adding that she was “immediately” drawn to Ferren’s piece when she saw it at the thrift store.
Her children are not so kind to the painting, which she says sits on the mantelpiece and gives her “peace to look at.”
“My kids say it’s ugly,” he told the appraiser.
The guest, pictured, cries with happiness knowing that the painting to her right, which she has had for years, could sell for five figures.
Guest and appraiser Nan Chisholm examine Ferren’s ‘The Prophet’ from 1947
Chisholm said Ferren became part of the abstract expressionist movement early on. He really matured as an artist throughout the 1930s in Paris and Italy, where he studied with the intention of becoming a sculptor.
“But after seeing an exhibition of Henri Matisse’s work in Munich he decided to focus on becoming a painter,” Chisholm said.
His new ambitions led him down a path that led him to marry the daughter of a Spanish artist, whom he would later divorce in 1938.
However, with his new social circle in Paris he had the opportunity to meet great Spanish artists such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró, who greatly influenced him.
Ferren even helped Picasso sketch one of his most enduring works, Guernica (1937), a response to the bombing of the city in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.
Spectators view Guernica, executed in 1937 by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Ferren completed the painting in the guest’s possession approximately 10 years after his return to the United States.
Chisholm first noticed Ferren’s name at the bottom of the painting, then turned the canvas over to reveal the back.
I was ecstatic at the legibility and clarity with which all the pertinent information was written.
“I want to show everyone that not only does it have the date 1947… but the artist’s name is printed clearly so it can be read easily,” Chisholm said.
Also on the back was the size of the painting, 19 inches by 26 inches, and the artist’s inventory number.
‘It’s really fantastic to have all this information here. It’s like a dream come true,’ she stated.
After reassuring the guest about the various “surface condition issues,” also known as paint stains, Chisholm asked the question every Antique Roadshow guest is asked.
Chisholm was ecstatic at the legibility and clarity with which all the pertinent information was written on the back of the painting.
—Do you have any idea how much it could be worth besides $9.99?
The guest laughed and said she didn’t know.
After telling the guest that the painting was “in basically good condition,” Chisolm estimated that Ferren’s ‘The Prophet’ could sell to a retail gallery for between $15,000 and $20,000.
‘Really, $20,000? Wow, that’s a lot,’ the guest responded, overwhelmed with emotion and having to hold back tears.
“All my kids are going to say, ‘Sell it,’ you know, and I’m just going to say, ‘No!'”
