Back in 1938, the Frederic Remington Art Museum had valued Remington’s Lea Febiger portrait at $100, the equivalent of a little more than $2,000 today. The next time it was appraised — sometime in the 1960s, according to Charles Dodge — the value had gone up to $7,500. But as Remington’s reputation and the value of his art continued to grow, the portrait’s worth had ballooned by 2015. For years the painting hung on a wall in Dodge’s living room. “He really is an iconic figure in American painting,” Colleene Fesko said during the “Antiques Roadshow” episode. “And this piece with the very dashing figure, the beautiful shadow, the abstracted landscape behind, is really a wonderful example of Remington’s work at the turn of the century.”
Although the Remington Art Museum lost a painting, another museum gained one. Dodge has loaned his painting to the Birmingham Museum of Art, where it can still be seen amid a growing collection of Remington’s other work, including his sculptures. “I just thought that would be a great place to let others see it, as well,” Dodge said.
