"Cham Shipjyo" Uncle Bap's Painting Listed for 13.1 Billion Won

Bob Ross's First Painting on Broadcast
The First Owner Was a Volunteer at the Time of the Broadcast

The works of American painter Bob Ross (1942?1995), who easily painted beautiful landscapes and encouraged viewers with the phrase "Isn't it easy?", have been put up for sale for about 13.1 billion won.

On the 19th (local time), according to U.S. public radio NPR and others, the gallery 'Modern Artifact' in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., is selling a painting that Ross created in the first episode of the TV show The Joy of Painting for $9.85 million (about 13.1 billion won).

[Photo by Yonhap News]

The painting for sale is an oil painting titled A Walk in the Woods, which Ross completed in 30 minutes during the first episode of the program. The painting, measuring 24 inches wide by 18 inches high, depicts a winding stone path, a blue pond, and several trees with yellow leaves, and Ross's signature is located at the bottom left of the artwork.

NPR described it as "the most expensive of Ross's works" and "a painting that could historically create a significant impact."

Ross gained great popularity through the program The Joy of Painting, which aired on PBS, the largest public broadcaster in the U.S., starting in 1983.

In this program, he showed the process of painting beautiful landscapes in a short time with the motto "Let's paint pictures that anyone can easily and enjoyably create." The program was a sensational hit, running for 11 years with 31 seasons and 403 episodes, and it is known that 935 million households in the U.S. alone watched it.

The program was broadcast in Korea on EBS in 1994 under the title Let's Paint, gaining tremendous popularity domestically, and Ross was affectionately called "Uncle Bob." Besides Korea, it was also broadcast in many countries including Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Turkey, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, and Canada.

'A Walk in the Woods' [Photo by MODERN ARTIFACT website]

The original owner of the painting now for sale is known to have been a volunteer who worked at PBS when season 1 of The Joy of Painting aired. Having owned the painting since November 1983, he reportedly purchased it for less than $100 (about 130,000 won) at a charity fundraising event at the time. He transferred ownership of the painting to Modern Artifact earlier this year.

Ross was born in Daytona, Florida, in 1942, served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years, and then worked as an art instructor before passing away from lymphoma at the age of 53. He was known to have been very active in his artistic work, having created more than 30,000 paintings during his lifetime.