Bob Ross’ first-ever TV painting has gone on sale for nearly $10 million.
A Minneapolis gallery has put up ‘A Walk in the Woods’, the first of more than 400 artworks the late artist produced on PBS’ The Joy of Painting.
Ryan Nelson, who owns the gallery Modern Artifact, said Ross created the piece on the show’s first episode.
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"It is season one, episode one of what you would call the rookie card for Bob Ross," he said, as per The Huffington Post.
Mr Nelson, who was raised in a small town, said that the TV host, known for his red curly hair and soothing voice, first introduced him to art.
The first season of The Joy of Painting aired in 1983 and was filmed in Falls Creek, Virginia. Ross’ first painting was sold a couple of months after the season debuted to raise funds for the local PBS station.
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The woman who had initially purchased the painting had it in her house for almost four decades.
She then contacted Mr Nelson, who has sold hundreds of Ross’ works.
ABC News reported that publicist Megan Hoffma confirmed that the asking price was far higher than any other Ross painting.
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The publicist also noted how Ross’ popularity had grown in recent years, as there are now 5.63 million subscribers to a YouTube channel featuring his shows.
Ross would create 30-minute masterpieces in each episode like mountain ranges, seascapes, forest scenes, and, yes, those infamous happy little trees.
The show ran until 1994. Tragically, Ross died the following year.
The recent Netflix documentary Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed revealed that following the artist’s death, his business associates began exploiting his brand.
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Steve Ross, Bob’s only child, details in the film how his father’s longtime business associates, Annette and Walt Kowalski, went against the icon’s wishes and took complete ownership of his name.
“It looked to me like they were trying to get Bob to sign his name over to them,” Steve reveals in the film.
“You could hear him screaming, ‘I’m not giving you my name’ … They literally wanted to steal Dad’s name, and did."
However, director Steve Rofé did not intend to make a ‘gotcha’ film but instead wanted to shed light on Ross’ legacy.
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“I just wanted to make a film that would represent this individual who is in many ways a mystery and yet completely beloved by so many,” he said, as per The Guardian.