GUEST: I know it back as far as my grandmother, and I had always admired it. And when she passed away in the early '90s, it was the one thing that I had wanted from the estate, and so it went to me.
APPRAISER: Well, it's clearly signed, you know, "John F. Carlson," John Fabian Carlson.
GUEST: I've done a little bit of internet research on the gentleman. I saw he was from the Woodstock School of Artists, and fairly prolific. I wanted to have it appraised for insurance purposes.
APPRAISER: Sure. Carlson was an artist who came from Sweden. He was born in Sweden but came to the United States when he was about nine years old, and painted primarily around the Woodstock area. You're correct with that. He was associated with the Woodstock Art Colony, which later became the Woodstock Artist Association. They're still there, they still exist.
GUEST: They're still there.
APPRAISER: North of New York City, which is probably where this was painted. And sometimes you see some things in Virginia. He painted some pieces there.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Which get a lot of interest as well. He did a lot of snow scenes. Artists such as Ochtman and Birge Harrison, other Woodstock artists, would also paint some of these snow scenes. It's a very popular sort of theme. Sargent actually came to be one of the first teachers up there in the Woodstock Art Colony, in 1904, and also, George Bellows was one of the most famous residents. Now, this painting was probably painted 1925 to 1935. He started late in his life. He was born in 1875.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: And lived to 1947. What's nice about this painting is that it's in pretty good condition. It's not lined. It's original canvas. And it also could be cleaned. This is pretty yellowed. That could come out much more blue.
GUEST: My grandmother was a smoker, and I understand that’s probably...
APPRAISER: This... all this snow down here would come out much whiter. I can tell you as an auctioneer I sold almost this exact same painting about three or four months ago.
GUEST: By him, by this artist as well?
APPRAISER: By Carlson. I sold it for over $30,000.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh!
APPRAISER: So I would say for insurance value, about $60,000.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh. It's more than I would have guessed.
