A guest on Antiques Roadshow showed off a painting she thrifted for $9.99 – and was shocked at how much her abstract piece could fetch if she sold it to a gallery.
The 1947 painting, called the ‘The Prophet’, was by 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’ attracted to Ferren’s piece when she saw it in the thrift store.
Her children aren’t as kind to the painting, which she said rests on her mantel and gives her ‘peace looking at it.’
‘My kids say that it’s ugly,’ she told the appraiser.
Chisholm said Ferren became a part of the Abstract Expressionism movement early on. He really matured as an artist throughout the 1930s in Paris and Italy, where he was studying with the intention to become a sculptor.
‘But after he saw an exhibition of work by Henri Matisse in Munich he decided he would focus on becoming a painter,’ Chisholm said.
His new ambitions led him down a path where he married the daughter of a Spanish artist, who he’d later divorce in 1938.
Nonetheless, with his new social circle in Paris, he got the opportunity to meet great Spanish artists such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró, both of whom influenced him greatly.
Ferren even helped Picasso sketch one of his most enduring works, Guernica (1937), a response to the 1937 bombing of the town during the Spanish Civil War.
Ferren completed the painting in the guest’s possession roughly 10 years after he moved back to the US.
Chisholm first noted Ferren’s name at the bottom of the painting, then flipped the canvas around to reveal the back.
He was ecstatic at just how legibly and plainly all the pertinent information was written.
‘I want to show everyone it not only has the date of 1947…but the artist’s name printed clearly so that it can be read easily,’ Chisholm said.
Also on the back was the size of the painting, 19 inches by 26 inches, and an artist inventory number.
‘This is really terrific to have all this information here. It’s like a dream come true,’ she said.
After reassuring the guest about the several ‘surface condition problems,’ a.k.a. paint smudges, Chisholm asked the question all Antique Roadshow guests get asked.
‘Do you have any idea what it might be worth other than $9.99?’
The guest laughed and said she didn’t know.
After telling the guest the painting was ‘basically in good condition,’ Chisolm estimated that Ferren’s ‘The Prophet’ could be sold to a retail gallery for $15,000 to $20,000.
‘Really, $20,000? Wow, that is a lot,’ the guest replied, overwhelmed by emotion and having to stifle tears.
‘My kids are all going to say, “Sell it,” you know, and I’m just going to go, “No!”‘