Posted on 12/05/2004 11:14:11 AM PST by Lijahsbubbe
Fans of "The Antiques Roadshow" know the fantasy. A dusty artifact in an attic turns out to be collectible and valuable. Everyone goes home satisfied that the stock they place in a family treasure is justified.
Two Twin Cities siblings are living the dream, having recently learned that an 1860s painting that long hung over their parents' fireplace in Eau Claire, Wis., is worth between $1 million and $1.5 million — possibly more.
"It's really an awesome thing," said Bob Culver of White Bear Township about the painting by Albert Bierstadt. "This art world is something none of us is familiar with."
On Saturday, Culver and his sister, Mary Schuck of Stillwater, along with the family of their late brother, will sell a mountain landscape that the family has owned since 1930. The painting is being auctioned by Susanin's in Chicago.
Milwaukee art appraiser Janice Kuhn, who made the first professional appraisal of the work, notes the symbolism of Manifest Destiny: the rugged but open landscape there for the taking, the wagon train in strong light juxtaposed against the "noble savage" in fading light on the left side, passively observing their progression.
Interest is already high, said Shlomi Rabi, head of premier and specialty auction services for Susanin's. "It is absolutely spectacular," he said. "For one, the size of it is impressive and almost overwhelming."
The painting's size — 5 feet wide by 3 feet high — is one reason the family is parting with it. "When (mom) died, we needed to find a place to put the painting," Bob Culver said. "None of us had room for a big painting like that."
The painting has its roots in Eau Claire, where the Culver siblings grew up. When Bierstadt fell from fashion back East, he worked the Chicago-to-Twin Cities circuit, said Bob Culver's wife, Signet. Bierstadt longed to be in "the millionaires' circle," she said.
Many of his paintings ended up with Wisconsin owners, including Joseph Thorp, a lumber baron who purchased the painting for his Eau Claire mansion. When he sold the mansion, the painting went with it.
In 1930, Bob and Mary's grandfather got the painting in lieu of unpaid rent from the family of a deceased tenant. The painting was treated as a castoff and relegated to various attics and buildings in Eau Claire for the next 40 years.
"People didn't have any idea at that time that the painting had any value," Bob Culver said. "That painting really bounced around from one building to another for storage."
The frame, however, caught the eye of his father, Homer, who used it for a window display in his Eau Claire shoe store. The painting stayed in an attic.
In the early 1970s, Homer Culver asked an artist who was renting studio space above the store whether he'd heard of Bierstadt.
"He got excited and couldn't wait for Dad to pull the painting out," Bob Culver said.
Suddenly aware of its value, his father brought the painting home, where for years it hung above a massive flagstone fireplace amid spotlights. An art professor from the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire regularly trooped students through their living room for a look.
But the family, which Culver confesses knew nothing about art, loved the painting for itself.
"It was beautiful," Schuck said. "I loved it. It was just a beautiful painting, and it was just perfect on that fireplace. It just brought the room together."
As their parents aged, they considered selling the painting, knowing their three children likely would do so after they died. But the children urged them to keep it as long as they wanted.
"Bob's dad took great pride in that picture," Signet Culver said. "They dearly loved that painting."
His father died in 1982, and after his mother's death in 1995, the family lent the painting to an art center in Oshkosh, Wis., where it was displayed until being shipped to Chicago.
The Culvers held onto the painting out of affection, but their timing was providential. Art collecting is back in favor, and values have skyrocketed.
Bierstadt's work is often exhibited with art by George Catlin and Frederic Remington. Sotheby's sold a Bierstadt landscape of Yosemite National Park in 2003 for $7 million, but the prices haven't fazed Bob Culver.
"By that time, we were accustomed to thinking of it as a masterpiece," he said.
The Culvers would welcome the money, which they'd use to restore savings depleted after a near-fatal car accident in 1997.
Still, they're sad to see the family masterpiece go. Bob Culver hopes to get professional photos of the painting that for so long dominated the landscape of his parents' home.
"We appreciated the realness of it," he said. "It definitely was a very fine piece of art. We enjoyed talking about it, to each other, and displaying it."
never mind - I see it is Maurice. will look for him.
I really need to get it appraised. I was stunned when I was told $500 by the one source, especially considering the condition it's in and all.
The only source I contacted about it a few years ago was in Georgia. I might contact UT about it and see what they have to say. I took it to my daughter's school one year when they were studying the Civil War and her teacher went nuts. It's always a big hit with visitors. We've had friends visit from up North and they always spend a lot of time in front of that map studying it. It does that to people. :-) It's like stepping back in time.
I still have the land deeds and surveyors drawings from my g-g-great-grandfathers land here in Georgia. They are all hand written, and some date from the early 1800's. They are cool heirlooms. Your map may be worth much more than just the family heirloom value though.
sothebys.com
you can search the archives.
or google auction Maurice Taquaq
http://web.artprice.com/ps/artitems.aspx?refGenre=A
You have to join to find out the prices, though.
http://www.european-paintings.com/cgi-bin/gallery3/gallery.cgi?func=show&file=200647&Category=100001&Page=6
And here's one for sale.
Thanks to both of you for the info. After Christmas I am going to start searching.
Arrrggghhh!! No more Happy Trees!!!!
No one has commented on the site I posted. The work is by a good friend of mine who is a brilliant artist (and ex pro-wrestler). The detail on his work is amazing. Bob Dylan collects many of his train paintings. He was also commissioned to do Jesse Ventura's portrait for the State Capital.
I use this one as my screensaver:
http://www.stevecepello.com/13.html
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