GUEST: This is a painting that I got from my grandmother, and she got it in the Philippines. She lived in the Philippines during the '30s. My grandfather was interred by the Japanese when they came in in the, in the '40s there, and she got out, she came back to pick him up, and they stayed there till about '48, when he died. And that's when she got this painting.
APPRAISER: Do you know if she was able to buy it from the artist?
GUEST: Yeah, she bought it from, from Mr. Amorsolo. She lived up in Baguio, and I guess he was a painter from that area. When I was a kid, she'd tell me that he was a well-respected artist from the Philippines, and I always loved it, and that's why she gave it to me when she died.
APPRAISER: Well, it certainly is a very important painting. He is an important artist. As you mentioned, this painting is by Fernando Amorsolo. He was born in Manila in 1892, and he studied art as a youngster, went to an art school, academy, in Manila, and graduated in 1914. And after that, he went to Spain and studied art, and loved to wander the streets of Spain looking at the light and the effect of heat. And he sketched a great deal, and after that, around 1917, 1918, he moved to New York for a brief period.
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: And when he was in New York, he was influenced by the postwar Impressionist paintings, seeing the abstract work and their use of light and brushstrokes, and so he employed much of that in his work, came back to the Philippines around 1920, and opened his own studio. And he's very famous for doing these genre scenes, these nature scenes. You can really feel the heat of the Manila midday with these fruit pickers under the tree, and the highlight on this lady's scarf and on her, on her shoulders here, to show, again, the, the wonderful use of light, that he was a master.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Uh, wonderful brushstrokes, and very nice painting, and it's signed and dated 1948, and it's important, because later in his years, in the late 1960s, he began going blind. So you'll find that his works from the '60s onward become a bit fuzzier, they're a bit more indistinct. But these earlier works from '48 are very much collectible. Have you learned anything about the price or the value of this work?
GUEST: Well, after my grandmother died, I wanted to find out. So I went to an appraiser here in L.A., and he gave me an appraisal of about $4,000.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And offered me $2,000.
APPRAISER: This is a major work, and at an auction, it would be estimated in the range of $25,000 to $35,000.
GUEST: Oh, man. (chuckles) Well, I'm glad I didn't take $4,000, or $2,000.
