Rating and value of Nicolas de Staël's drawings, lithographs and prints

If you own a work of art by or about Nicolas de Staël, and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers can offer you their appraisal services. Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with a precise estimate of its current market value. Thereafter, if you wish to sell your work, we will guide you towards the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price.

Rating and value of the artist Nicolas de Staël  

Nicolas de Staël is a Franco-Russian painter of the 20th century. He left behind a unique body of work reflecting his moods and personality. This legacy is made up of paintings, mostly oils on canvas. Today, prices for his works are reaching unprecedented heights at auction. His paintings and other works are particularly prized, especially by French and Russian buyers, and the price at which they sell on the art market ranges from €20 to €17,469,000, a considerable delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to Staël's works. In 2019, a predominantly green polychrome composition entitled Parc des Princes (les grands footballeurs) sold for €19,646,00 while it was estimated at between €18,000,000 and €25,000,000.

Order of value from a single work to the most prestigious

Nicolas de Staël, evolving into abstraction

Nicolas de Staël doesn't fit into any particular movement, nor is that his aim or purpose. He sees his career as one of constant evolution, despite its brevity. Some would classify him as one of the many artists of the École de Paris  the term being very broad, it doesn't really encompass much and isn't really suited to his singularity. There is, however, general agreement that much of his work is abstract - more in its research than in its outcome.

The Baron de Staël, from Seghers to Soutine

The Baron Nikolai Vladimirovich Staël von Holstein, known as Nicolas de Staël, (1914 - 1955) was born into a Russian military family serving the Tsar. He grew up in St. Petersburg, but was soon forced into exile in Poland with his family. His parents died shortly afterwards. He was taken in by relatives in France, then Brussels. Not excelling academically, he preferred Greek tragedies and the paintings of Rubens. On his own, he studied old Northern School paintings before enrolling at the Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Back in France, he discovered the brilliant colors of Matisse, the beginnings of cubism with Cézanne, its analysis with Braque and the expressionist impulses of Soutine. During this same period, he traveled with his first wife, Jeannine, to Italy, Morocco, before finally returning to settle in Provence and capture its light.

His career spanning only twenty years, however, de Staël anticipates years of art-historical evolution and plastic research.

De Staël painted relentlessly throughout the 1950s, " until the canvas bursts ", his output amounting to 240 paintings in 1952, not counting drawings and lithographs. Yet supported by Braque and others, de Staël went through a great depression and began producing nudes after meeting Jeanne, his last love - which ended in tears.

Fatigued with being misunderstood, he threw himself into the void from the top of his Antibes studio in 1955, he was only 40.

Legacy and prosperity

De Staël contributed considerable output and thought. Ahead of his time - he considers fundamental in his painting the fulgurance of authority and the fulgurance of hesitation. He believes he paints " with a thousand vibrations the blow received " ; allowing himself to be overtaken by his emotions, however sordid and distressing they may be.

Looking higher and further than the abstraction / figuration duality, his painting " screams without anger ", locking in his greatest fears in every stroke affixed to the canvas.

It's necessary to summon Rothko in the process, a painter of the same temperament, who " imprisons the most absolute violence in every square centimetre of their [his canvases'] surface " -

The retrospective devoted to him by the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris has not only increased his renown, but also his market value, with his canvases and consequently his drawings and prints likely to reach record amounts at auction in the near future.

Recognizing Nicolas de Staël's signature

Often, Nicolas de Staël's works are signed at the bottom of the painting. He signs " Staël " often in a dark tone.

Knowing the value of a work

If you happen to own a work by or after Nicolas de Staël, don't hesitate to request a free appraisal using the form on our website. A member of our team of experts and certified auctioneers will contact you promptly to provide you with an estimate of the market value of your work, as well as any relevant information about it. If you are considering selling your work, you will also be accompanied by our specialists in order to benefit from alternatives for selling it at the best possible price, taking into account the inclinations of the market.