Cabin at Sunset (1987), a painting of a pastoral scene under a technicolour sky by the late television art instructor Bob Ross (1942-95) has sold for more than $1m in an online benefit auction, setting a new secondary-market record for the beloved cultural icon and raising critical funds for public broadcasters in the US.
The auction, which ended Monday evening (24 November) was part of a fundraising effort organised by the television programme Last Week Tonight With John Oliver that also featured objects from the show, experiences and merchandise, all on offer to benefit the Public Media Bridge Fund initiative. Ross's painting had elicited more than 30 bids, pushing its price to more than $1.04m.
Earlier this month, three paintings by Ross sold for more than $662,000 in all at Bonhams in Los Angeles, to benefit American Public Television (APT). That 11 November sale marked the beginning of a multistage auction series that will see 30 paintings donated by Bob Ross Inc sold to support public broadcasting stations across the United States. Three works sold at Bonhams—Winter’s Peace (1993), Home in the Valley (1993) and Cliffside (1990)—were painted on-camera for episodes of Ross’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show The Joy of Painting, which aired nationally throughout the 1980s and 90s, and has since become a cultural phenomenon through reruns and online videos.
At the Los Angeles auction, Winter’s Peace, a snowy landscape with a cabin and evergreen trees, sold for $318,000—setting an auction record for Ross's work that was broken less than two weeks later by Cabin at Sunset. Home in the Valley, a depiction of a red-roofed cabin overlooking a reflective lake, sold for $229,100. Cliffside, showing waves coursing over a rocky outcrop, sold for $114,800. Bonhams’s sales of the donated Ross works are due to continue into 2026.
Bob Ross, Winter’s Peace, 1993 Courtesy Bonhams and Bob Ross Inc
The donation of Ross’s paintings for sale at Bonhams was made by Joan Kowalski, the president of Bob Ross Inc, to raise funds for US public radio and television stations now navigating federal budget cuts. Public broadcasters have reported widespread challenges following the Trump administration’s recent elimination of more than $1bn in federal support for public media, leaving many stations with operational gaps that cannot be filled solely through local fundraising.
"These funds will help local stations continue to serve their communities with impactful programming," Jim Dunford, the president and chief executive of APT, said in a statement. "We’re deeply grateful to Bob Ross Inc for shining a spotlight on the need to support public media at this critical time."
APT, which syndicates programming for public television in the US, says the proceeds from the auctions will be distributed to stations most affected by the funding cuts, particularly in rural states, and has warned of reductions in staffing, local journalism, children’s educational programming and community-based services. The rising demand for Ross’s paintings has created, APT says, an “unexpected opportunity” for stations that have historically relied on viewer donations and limited federal funding.
Although Ross created thousands of paintings over his lifetime, most are held by Bob Ross Inc or stored in regional PBS archives, leaving relatively few available to collectors. This scarcity, combined with Ross’s sustained popularity across streaming platforms and social media, and the fact that the few of his paintings made available have been sold for charitable causes, have all contributed to a rapid increase in the prices for his work.
Bonhams will sell the remaining 27 paintings in the Bob Ross Inc donation next year in auctions in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Each sale will include paintings produced during televised episodes and selected from across the 1980s and early 90s.
