Rating and value of paintings by Marie Louise Breslau

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Rating and value of the artist Maire-Louise Breslau   

Marie-Louise Breslau is an artist known to lovers of impressionist canvases and still lifes of flowers. Now, prices for her works are rising at the auctioneers' gavel.

Her oils on canvas are particularly prized, especially by French buyers, and the price at which they sell on the art market ranges from €60 to €38,100, a significant delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to the artist's works.

In 2025, his oil on canvas Jeune femme et jeune fille devant une fenêtre was sold for €30,000, whereas it was estimated at between €1,500 and €2,000. Its value has risen sharply.

Order of value from a simple work to the most prestigious

Style and technique by artist Marie-Louise Breslau   

Marie-Louise Breslau (1856 - 1927) was a Franco-Swiss portrait painter active in Paris at the end of the 19th century. She specialized in female portraits and genre scenes, often in interiors, which convey a certain sensitivity and restrained psychology.

She depicts everyday attitudes, namely boredom, reverie or work, where the unspoken occupies a fairly central place.

Her style is close to that of her contemporaries Berthe Morisot or Mary Casatt, but with a more restrained palette and a greater concern for formal construction. Trained at the Académie Julian, she maintained a rigorous academic approach to drawing, while incorporating a freer touch derived from Impressionism.

The artist uses charcoal, sanguine or pastel with great ease in her preparatory studies. Her brushstrokes are nervous yet precise, and always seek to convey an inner attitude rather than a simple morphological rendering.

She is fond of muted, muffled tones (bluish gray, golden brown, old pink and moss green). Light is dappled, diffused and often sideways, as if filtered through a curtain or window, accentuating the melancholy mood.

The artist excels in rendering textiles, soft fabrics or papers, working in small, soft, melting strokes. In her portraits, she seeks to capture a state of mind rather than a social status, favoring absent glances, suspended gestures and natural poses.

She avoids ostentatious accessories in favor of sober staging that leaves all room for the body and the gaze. The characters, who are often female, seem absorbed in their thoughts, giving her canvases a meditative dimension.

The background is often a modest bourgeois interior (living room, study, bed or studio, which reinforces the effect of intimacy). She regularly introduces elements of intellectual or artistic life (books, scores, easels), reflecting a cultivated but discreet milieu. This approach contributes to a form of poetic realism, rooted in everyday life.

The career of Marie-Louise Breslau

Marie-Louise Catherine Breslau (1856 - 1927) was a trained and active Swiss artist, and a great portrait painter of the Belle Époque. Born in Zurich into an intellectual environment, she showed an early aptitude for drawing.

After the premature death of her father, she decided to become an artist, despite social reticence towards women painters. In 1874, she moved to Paris and joined the Académie Julian, one of the few institutions to train women in the Beaux-Arts.

There she met Carolus-Duran and other artists active in Paris at the time. She began exhibiting at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français in 1879, where her portraits were very well received.

In 1881, her painting Après le travail won an award and was noted for its psychological sensitivity and sure technique. She quickly became a fixture at the Parisian Salons, being regularly selected and often awarded.

Thanks to her intimate, naturalistic style, she received numerous portrait commissions, especially from upper-middle-class women and intellectuals. Established in Montparnasse, she led a life of rigorous work, fairly withdrawn from worldly tumult.

She thus frequented artists, writers and musicians, including Edgar Degas, Jules Breton or Gabriel Fauré. She maintained an intense friendship with Madeleine Zillhardt, model and muse, with whom she shared her life and studio.

Although a foreigner, she was deeply integrated into French cultural life and became a member of the Société nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1901, she was awarded the Légion d'Honneur, still a rare distinction for a woman artist and foreigner.

She remained faithful throughout her career to intimate easel painting, going against the grain of the radical avant-gardes emerging at the time.

Marie-Louise Breslau died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1927, after a career spanning almost fifty years. She left behind a rich body of work, consisting mainly of portraits, self-portraits, domestic scenes and psychological studies.

Her work, long overshadowed, has been rediscovered in the context of studies of 19th-century women artists. She is now recognized as a major figure in Belle Époque intimist painting, at the crossroads of tradition and the modern gaze.

Focus on After Work, Marie-Louise Breslau, 1881

After Work is a painting by Marie-Louise Breslau exhibited at the Salon of 1881, measuring 125 x 160 cm, the work receives a very favorable reception and marks the beginning of the artist's public recognition. The subject is intimate, depicting three young women in a studio, resting after a session of artistic work.

The work represents the artist's actual environment, probably her own studio in Paris. Three female figures, either friends or colleagues, are seated or reclining with an attitude of peaceful relaxation.

This painting evokes the shared creation and everyday life of a generation of female artists emancipating themselves from academic shackles.

The subject is in the tradition of the 19th-century tableau de mœurs, with a fresh approach focusing on interiority and authenticity. The absence of dramatic action gives the scene a contemplative value, reinforced by the stable, horizontal composition.

The background is almost is almost neutral insofar as there is no theatrical setting, but simply a few studio objects (table, canvases, curtains).

The composition is highly constructed, diagonal, with a skilful interplay of lines between bodies and furniture. The light comes from the left and grazes the faces and hands, delicately shaping the volumes.

The palette is sober and muted (browns, grays, ivory, verdigris, creating an almost silent atmosphere. The central figure, in profile, with a pensive gaze, is often interpreted as a self-portrait of Breslau.

This painting is now considered one of the masterpieces of feminine intimist realism, alongside works by Morisot, Zandomeneghi or Casatt.

Recognizing the artist's signature

Marie Louise Breslau does not necessarily sign her works. Copies may exist, which is why expertise remains important.

Knowing the value of a work

If you happen to own a work by Marie Louise Breslau or after the artist, 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, as well as 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 the inclinations of the market.