On Tuesday, the first three (of 30 total) original canvases by America television icon Bob Ross hit the auction block at Bonhams. The paintings sold for a total of $600,000. The proceeds from this and future sales of Ross’s “happy little paintings” will benefit American Public Television, a nonprofit syndicator that has been impacted by President Trump’s budget cuts.
The three Ross landscape paintings—Cliffside, 1990; and Home in the Valley and Winter’s Peace, both 1993—were some of the top lots in a larger sale of California and Western art. Home in the Valley and Winter’s Peace were both painted on camera as part of Ross’s long-running television show, “The Joy of Painting,” a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) program that ran for 11 years, starting in 1983. (Ross died from lymphoma in 1995.) Cliffside was painted for the 20th volume of Ross’s series of instructional painting manuals, also called The Joy of Painting. The book includes step-by-step directions and photos on how to paint 13 scenes, one of which was Cliffside.
Winter’s Peace and Home in the Valley had pre-sale estimates of $30,000-50,000 each, while Cliffside had a $25,000-40,000 estimate. Respectively, they sold for $318,000, $229,100, and $114,800, including premiums.
The remaining 27 paintings will be sold by Bonhams in 2026 at sales in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.
As reported in The New York Times when the sale was announced in early October, the idea came to Joan Kowalski, the president of Bob Ross Inc., when she learned that Bonhams had recently sold two early ‘90s Ross paintings from a private collection for well above their pre-sale estimates. In August, Lake Below Snow-Capped Peaks and Cloudy Sky sold for $114,800 and Lake Below Snow-Covered Mountains and Clear Sky sold for $95,750.
At that point, Kowalski decided to donate 30 paintings owned by the Ross estate to American Public Television, which syndicates “The Joy of Painting,” among other television shows. “It will motivate bidders because it will help public television,” Kowalski told The New York Times. “The marriage of the two ideas came together and then I couldn’t let loose of it until I set it all in motion.”
