Rating and value of drawings and paintings by Paul Gauguin

Paintings and drawings by Paul Gauguin trade up to €91,746,540 on the auction market. An appraisal enables us to accurately determine the price of your work by Paul Gauguin on the current market and to optimize, if necessary, the sale of a work.

If you own a work by Paul Gauguin and would like to know its value, our state-approved auctioneers will carry out a free appraisal based on authenticity, quotation and recent market results.

Rating and value of the artist

Paul Gauguin is a highly rated post-impressionist artist, his works selling for significant amounts on the auction market.

Today, the prices at which his works are sold on the auction market range between €10 and €91,746,540, a considerable delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to Gauguin's works.

Sought after by collectors, works by Paul Gauguin can fetch tens of thousands of euros at auction, as evidenced by his oil on canvas Maternité II, dating from 1899, sold for €91,746,540 in 2022.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

Situating the artist

Period

Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903) is part of the second half of the 19th century and the turn towards the 20th century, a period of profound questioning of academic standards and the dominant naturalistic aesthetic.

He had a close and conflicted relationship with Van Gogh, particularly during their cohabitation in Arles, and an intellectual closeness with Émile Bernard, with whom he developed the principles of synthetism and cloisonnism.

He exerted a major influence on the avant-gardes of the early 20th century and occupies a seminal position in the history of modern art.

Currents

Gauguin was initially close to Impressionism in the 1870s - 1880s, but soon broke away, judging this aesthetic to be too attached to sensitive perception and not conceptual enough. His career is marked by geographical and existential ruptures that are inseparable from his artistic project.

He is a central figure of post-impressionism, understood as a set of approaches aimed at going beyond impressionism through synthesis, subjectivity and the intellectual construction of the image. He is also the founder of synthesism, characterized by flat tints of color, simplified forms and a strong symbolic dimension.

Paul Gauguin's life

Cultural context

Paul Gaguin was born in Paris in 1848 and spent part of his childhood in Peru, a fundamental experience in the construction of his imagination and his relationship with exoticism.

He first pursued a career as a sailor, then as a stockbroker, and gradually turned to painting from the 1870s, at a time of personal and professional rupture. He was close to Impressionism in his early years, but quickly moved away from it to develop an autonomous aesthetic based on the synthesis of forms.

Artistic identity

Gauguin gradually moved towards expressive color and the rejection of naturalism. His move to Brittany, in particular Pont-Aven, marked a decisive stage in the development of his pictorial language, nourished by symbolic and spiritual references.

From the 1890s onwards, he made several trips to French Polynesia, where he sought an art he considered more primitive and freed from Western conventions. His final years, marked by illness, poverty and isolation, took place in the Marquesas Islands, where he died in 1903.

Techniques of the artist

Style of Paul Gauguin

The artist's style is characterized by a clear break with Impressionism, in favor of conceptual painting based on the subjectiivity and symbolic meaning of the image.

He developed synthetism, with the aim of simplifying forms, compartmentalizing colored surfaces and condensing visual perception, emotion and ideas into a unified composition. From then on, color took on an expressive, non-naturalistic function. 

Focus on a key work

Where do we come from ? What are we ? Where are we going ?

This is a large-scale composition that Gauguin produced in Tahiti, conceived as a testamentary and synthetic work of his artistic and philosophical thought. In it, he gives a symbolic reading of human existence, structured from right to left, from birth to death.

He radically simplifies forms, with extended chromatic flat tints that are characteristic of synthetism, privileging the expression of the idea over the observation of reality. He makes arbitrary use of color.

This work is a manifesto for the rejection of naturalism and academicism, affirming the quest for a primitive, interior and symbolic art.

FAQ : How to estimate a work by Paul Gauguin ?

The estimate begins by identifying the technique used, with an examination of the support and dimensions, dating and signature. 

2)    What criteria of style and iconography are decisive ?

The analysis focuses on the period of creation, distinguishing in particular Breton works, those produced in Arles and above all Tahitian and Marquesan productions, which are characterized by a stylization of forms and a synthetic construction of space.

3)    What importance does the Tahitian period have in the valuation ?

Works produced during the artist's Polynesian sojourns occupy a central place in the assessment of value, due to their rarity, their historical importance in the evolution of modern art and their strong demand on the international market.

Market segmentation and figures

Price of works

Gauguin belongs to a high-level market, dominated by the major international places, his quotation is durably part of the segment blue chip.

Paintings are the most prestigious segment, with auctions frequently between €5 and €50 million, with some masterpieces exceeding this threshold in private sales. Works on paper form part of an active market, with prices generally between €200,000 and €3 million.

Sculptures and woodcuts form part of a smaller, but highly valuable segment with current results between €500,000 and €5 million. 

Valuation factors

Complex figurative compositions, which incorporate accomplished symbolist iconography reach exponentially higher price levels than studies or transitional works, sometimes confined to amounts below €500,000.

There is a clear premium for the Tahitian and Marquesan works (1891 - 1903), which are considered the pinnacle of his production, these works can be worth two to three times more than the European works from the Breton and Parisian periods. 

His signature

Not all of Paul Gauguin s works are signed.

Although there are variations, here is a first example of his signature:

Have your work appraised by Paul Gauguin

If you own a work by Paul Gauguin, an appraisal can help you appreciate its value on today's market.

From our online form, our experts and certified auctioneers carry out a free appraisal and provide you with a reliable estimate of your work's market value.

If you're considering selling it, we'll work with you to ensure it fetches the best value.