Art
Bob Ross’s first TV painting goes up for auction – for several million dollars
Bob Ross in front of one of his paintings
© ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection/ / Picture Alliance
Cult figure and TV painter Bobb Ross painted around 400 paintings on his TV show “The Joy of Painting”. Now the very first painting, “A Walk in the Woods,” is for sale.
Now the painting, called “A Walk in the Woods,” which translates to “A Walk in the Woods,” is up for sale for nearly $10 million. What’s special about the picture: It was painted by Bob Ross in the very first episode of his TV show. It shows colorful trees, gray angular rocks and of course blue water in the typical Ross look.
Painting hung in a house for almost 40 years
Ross had given the landscape painting to the television station where his show was recorded. The station sold it to a woman who had had the picture in her house for almost 40 years. The gallery “Modern Artifact” from the US city of Minneapolis bought the picture from the owner for an unknown sum. Ryan Nelson, owner of the gallery, says Ross was “the people’s artist” and “it’s the masses, the people of the world, who say Bob Ross is great.” Until the picture finds a new owner for a whopping $9.4 million, Nelson could also imagine exhibiting the painting in a museum. As a Ross fan, it is probably his great wish that many people enjoy the work of art.
Cult figure Bob Ross
On July 4, 1995, Bob Ross died of complications from cancer in Florida. With his distinctive curly hairstyle, he is now a cult figure. With his gentle charisma and soothing voice, Bob Ross crept into the hearts of an audience of millions – to this day. There is a channel on Twitch with 2.1 million followers that regularly streams old episodes of the TV show. There is also a fan channel on YouTube that has 5.63 million subscribers.