Rating and value of paintings by Louis Mathieu Verdilhan

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Artist's rating and value

An important artistic figure of his time, Louis Mathieu Verdilhan has established himself as a sure bet on the art market. Constantly evolving, his quotation remains high and his works are sold internationally.

In the auction room, his landscapes inspired by the South of France, where he is originally from, are the most sought-after and therefore prized. He produced almost exclusively paintings, the only medium present on the market today.

A work signed Louis Mathieu Vedilhan can sell for thousands of euros at auction, as evidenced by his oil on canvas, L'entrée du port de Marseille, which fetched €58,000 in 2011, whereas it was estimated at between €40,000 and €60,000.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

Artist's style and technique

Louis Mathieu Verdilhan (1875 - 1928) was a 20th-century figurative artist who produced landscape paintings inspired mainly by the south of France.

Monticelli and Van Gogh exercise a notable influence on his early works, particularly with regard to the thick, vibrant tones used by the artist. His work then evolves towards fauvism and German Expressionism (between 1907 and 1913), with a bold adoption of pure colors, simplified forms and expressive structure, characterizing his move towards a more liberated modernity.

His chromaticism is charged, the artist working with acidic, vivid hues of high chromatic intensity, reflecting an inner tension in the artist.

The tones are clear and harmonious from the 1920s onwards, he moves to lighter, airy surfaces, structured by clean, simplified contours, embodying a synthetic expression of form. Contours are marked, shapes delimited by assertive lines, underlining the geometric structure of compositions.

A certain essentialization emerges from his style, the artist conducts research towards the simplest reduction of pictorial space, without embellishment, in order to reveal the essential of form.

He mainly depicts Mediterranean landscapes, with recurring subjects such as Marseille's Old Port, village lanes and coastlines all imbued with a lively, atmospheric southern light.

Verdilhan works mainly with the technique of oil on canvas or oil on panel, favoring color intensity and assertive strokes. He took part in monumental projects such as the decoration of the Pavillon de Provence (1925 Exhibition) and the Marseilles Opera House (1926), demonstrating his commitment to a total, public art form.

Verdilhan worked mainly with oil on canvas or oil on panel, favoring intense color and assertive strokes.

The life of Louis Mathieu Verdilhan

Louis Mathieu Verdilhan is a figurative artist born in 1975 in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, into a modest family. His family moved to the Chartreux district of Marseille in 1877.

He became an apprentice house painter in 1890, then took up drawing with the help of the artist Eugène Giraud. In 1895, he opened a studio at 12 rue Fort-Notre-Dame, which he kept throughout his life. In 1898, he moved to Paris, where he worked with decorator Adrien Karbowsky to decorate the Salon de bois at the 1900 Exposition Universelle.

The artist lost his left eye in 1902, but nevertheless began his career with an exhibition on rue Saint-Ferréol in Marseille that same year, followed by the Palais des Architectes in 1905. He also took part in the Salon des Indépendants from 1906, and the Salon d'Automne from 1908.

He was influenced by Monticelli and Van Gogh in his early years, then evolved towards a Fauvist palette, finally adopting a more sober, synthetic style in the 1920s. He also spent six months in Versailles in 1909, producing numerous compositions.

During the First World War, he was mobilized to Toulon, where he met Albert Marquet, who would exert a significant influence on his work, along with André Suarès and Antoine Bourdelle.

After the war, he lived in Aix-en-Provence, Cassis and Toulon. He married Hélène Casile, daughter of painter Alfred Casile, on March 16, 1919. The following year, he exhibited in New York via the Kraushaar gallery.

The artist's emblematic subject remained the port of Marseille, with over 130 paintings produced between 1913 and 1920. As for his public projects, he created a fresco for the Pavillon de Provence at the 1925 Exposition Universelle, and produced a much-criticized decoration for the Opéra de Marseille in 1926.

In his final years, his palette darkened. His works are relatively different. He died of laryngeal cancer in Marseille in 1928. His younger brother, André Alexandre Verdilhan (1881 - 1963), was also an artist (painter and sculptor).

Artist's rating and market segmentation

The prices realized by the artist's works are quite substantial. Le canal à la douane à Marseille, for example, was estimated at between €35,000 and €40,000. La place (exhibited at the 1910 Salon d'Automne) sold for 32,500 GBP, or around 37,000€, above its initial estimate of between 4,000 and 6,000€.

From Vues de Marseille, a lot of 3 drawings (pastel/fusain) sold for 3,250€ for an estimate of between 2,500 and 3,000€. Pastel Seated Nude was estimated at between 800 and 1,000 USD.

For small formats, his Vue de Moustier-Sainte-Marie, at night, was estimated at between 1,500 and 2,000€. Small landscapes or Provencal scenes, meanwhile, were estimated at between €2,000 and €8,000, depending on medium and size.

By segment, his major works (large-format canvases and emblematic Marseilles scenes), generally sell for between €30,000 and €40,000, exceptionally more if the provenance and composition were remarkable (results in excess of €40,000).

Small formats and studies on canvas or cardboard sell for between €2,000 and €10,000, depending on condition, signature and subject. Works on paper fetch between €800 and €3,500, depending on medium, originality and size. Small-format drawings or pastels, meanwhile, have target prices around €3,000, which can change according to demand.

The market's top plates for the artist are made up of institutional buyers or regional collectors looking for highly identifiable views of Marseille or Provence.

For the mid-range, lovers of painting between post-impressionism and regional avant-garde are more interested in works representative of southern light. The entry-level range remains accessible to young collectors or small local art galleries, notably via works on paper or small format.

Recognizing the artist's signature

Not all of Louis Mathieu Verdilhan's works are signed. Here's an example of his signature.

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