Rating and value of works, drawings, paintings by Roger Mühl

If you own a work by or after the artist Roger Mühl, and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will offer you their appraisal services.

Our specialists will work to carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with an accurate estimate of its value on the current market.

Then, should you wish to sell your work, we will direct you to the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price.  

Rating and value of the artist Roger Mühl

Considered an important contemporary artist of the 20th century, Roger Mühl leaves behind an artistic identity of his own. This legacy consists mainly of oils on canvas.

At present, prices for his works are rising at auctioneers' gavels, his stock is on the rise. His canvases and other works are particularly prized, especially by French and American buyers, and the price at which they sell on the art market ranges from €5 to €50,000, a considerable delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to Mühl's works.

In 2023, a predominantly blue composition entitled Les Pins sold for €260,000 while it was estimated at between €8,000 and €10,000.

Order of value from a simple work to the most prestigious 

Style and technique of artist Roger Mühl  

 Roger Mühl (1929 - 2008) is a versatile artist, painter, draughtsman, lithographer and sculptor, trained at the École supérieure des Arts décoratifs in Strasbourg (graduating in 1948), highly inspired by the landscapes of southern France, particularly Provence and the Côte d'Azue, as well as by Alsatian atmospheres.

The works are mainly figurative, and focus on the gentle figuration and poetic modulation of light. They create an unreal, dreamlike atmosphere, through uncluttered landscapes bathed in silent clarity.

The palette is dominated by delicate pastel tones, favoring luminous softness over raw chromatic expression. The brushstrokes are visible and controlled, without pictorial overload, allowing the light to animate the surface.

He prefers open spaces (fields, gardens, Mediterranean spaces where light imposes itself as a driving force, creating visual breathing effects), with airy, balanced compositions, where light becomes a structuring element as vivid as a motif.

He masters oil on canvas, often in medium formats, sometimes gouache, watercolor and lithograph. He works on light through superimpositions of thin layers and masters tonal transitions.

He is sometimes likened to the abstract landscape painters or the École de Paris, while remaining faithful to an intimate, luminous figuration. He expresses a meditative serenity, evoking Cézanne or Chagall in the way they breathe inner life into natural scenes.

The life of Roger Mülh

Roger Mühl (1929-2008) was born in Geudertheim, Alsace. Few details are known about his personal life. He trained as an artist at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg.

He exhibited his paintings for the first time at the Galerie de Paris in 1960. The public and critics were relatively enthusiastic. He went on to travel the world, exhibiting his work in New York, Milan, Cologne and Geneva.

Patrice Mülh considers him a figurative painter, " above all a painter of light and atmosphere ". Some also classify him as part of the École de Paris group.

Having drawn much of his inspiration from the Mediterranean coast, he helped bring this region to life through painting, as Paul Cézanne or Marc Chagall.

Market segmentation and artist's rating

In 2021, his work Cap d'Antibes sold for USD 56,700 in New York. Over the full historical range, his works have sold for between USD 5 and USD 56,700, depending on format, support and authenticity.

The market averages over the last 12 months are as follows : paintings on canvas have an estimated average of USD 10,742, while the average for works on paper hovers around USD 616, reflecting a more accessible market.

L'Olivier (oil on canvas) estimated between 5,000 and 7,000 USD, sold for 44,450 USD, +789% above the low estimate. Desertscape (1974), estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 USD, sold for 23,580 USD.

By category, the price segments were as follows : large formats and iconic works often fetched around 20,000 - 45,000 USD, with exceptional peaks like the Olivier.

Medium-sized works generally fetched between 2,000 and 8,000 USD, depending on the quality and provenance of the work. Works on paper (drawings, washes, lithographs) generally fetch between 600 and 2,000 USD for signed works, and lithographed prints (Moulot, etc) gravitate around 100 - 2,000 USD.

The sale rate is high, at around 33%, with good price orientation (up to +789%). The performances of his iconic works, the large formats, are attracting bids well above estimates, a sign of solid and growing interest.

Focus on Cap d'Antibes, Roger Mühl

Cap d'Antibes is an oil on canvas painted in the 1970s - 1980s (the mature period when Mühl settled in the South of France). The chosen format is horizontal, emphasizing the landscape space.

The spatial organization is conceived in colored flat tints, creating a composition of great clarity. The palette is dominated by luminous blues and chalky whites, contrasted with touches of ochres and greens.

The colors are laid down in broad, uniform patches, without modeling, reinforcing the impression of calm and obviousness. Mediterranean light is reflected in the reduced contrasts and gloable clarity, with an atmosphere of almost timeless limpidity.

The paint is applied evenly, in thin, smooth layers, avoiding impasto and with a broad, disciplined brush, which organizes the surface without expressionist gesture. The deliberate smoothing reinforces the contemplative dimension and gives the painting an almost architectonic quality.

The work does not seek description, but the capture of a luminous atmosphere, the landscape becomes a meditation on light. His work does not seek description, but the capture of a luminous atmosphere, the landscape becomes a meditation on light.

The painting returns an impression of landscape abstraction : we recognize a place, but reduced to its essential components (line, color, clarity). Through simplification, the painting expresses a Mediterranean serenity, a harmony between nature and the eye.

This painting is illustrative of Mühl's characteristic style of uncluttered figuration, close to abstraction through simplification of form. The work is in the tradition of the Southern painters (Signac, Bonnard, Marquet) while accentuating the structuring role of light.

This painting testifies to the artist's ongoing quest to make the landscape a space of visual silence, free from any narrative overload.

Roger Mülh's imprint on his period  

Roger Mülh may have left less of an imprint on his period than some painters, but he remains a highly appreciated artist, close to Van Gogh in certain respects, who produced remarkable work on light and colorimetry.

His works are much appreciated by French buyers, because they are often monochrome and allow for minimalist decoration.

Recognizing the artist's signature

Roger Mühl very sometimes signs his works, most of the time at the bottom of the painting, in a color that contrasts with the background.

Knowing the value of a work 

If you happen to own a work by or after Roger Mühl, don't hesitate to request a free valuation using our 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, not forgetting to send you ad hoc 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 market inclinations.