The man who brought the bluebonnet painting to “Antiques Roadshow” said Robert Wood had traded it with his aunt for room and board sometime in the 1920s or 1930s. “The story I understand is that he couldn’t make rent, and so he offered a painting as payment for that,” the man told Alan Fausel. The Wood painting stayed in the family and eventually came to him. After Wood left Texas, he moved to California and lived long enough to enjoy fame as an artist thanks in part to a lucrative deal to sell low-priced reproductions of his work, which greatly increased his stature, but not the value of his paintings.
“During the 1950s, Wood’s works became increasingly popular in print and the royalties eventually made him a comfortable living,” according to the art dealer Jeffrey Morseburg, who knew the artist (via robertwood.net). “He left a legacy of thousands of paintings, for his career lasted almost seventy years.” It was this legacy, appraiser Alan Fausel pointed out, that has kept Wood’s work at a lower value over the years. “[O]ne of the things about Wood is, he’s so prolific, that really has depressed his market,” Faucel said. “He did far too many paintings. They aren’t rare enough. And the other thing about him, he was so deft at doing, he was very quick. In my business, we say he’s a little slick.” Whether slick or not, there are many admirers of Wood’s work who are willing to pay to own an original.
