Jean Pougny Auction Prices and Value Guide
Jean Pougny auction prices are tracked in Appraisily's artist market index, with source-directory coverage of 599 records. Use this page to review sold-lot activity, market context, and valuation factors before requesting a formal appraisal.
Jean Pougny auction prices: quick answer
Jean Pougny auction prices depend on medium, size, date, condition, provenance, edition details, attribution confidence, and recent comparable auction sales.
- Artist
- Jean Pougny
- Source records
- 599
- Market update
- 2026-02-16
Artist context
About Jean Pougny
Jean Pougny, born Ivan Albertovich Puni in 1892 in Kuokkala near St. Petersburg, was a Russian-French painter, sculptor, collagist, and stage designer whose career spanned two continents and several radical stylistic shifts. A central figure in the Russian avant-garde, he participated in some of the most daring exhibitions of the 1910s before emigrating to Berlin and then Paris in the early 1920s. In France he adopted the name Jean Pougny and his work moved away from pure abstraction toward a lyrical figurative mode influenced by Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, often described as lyric Primitivism. He became a French citizen in 1946 and died in Paris in 1956. His work is held by major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate in London. He was the grandson of the Italian composer Cesare Pugni and was married to the painter Ksenia Boguslavskaya.
Russian avant-gardeLyric Primitivismoil paintingwatercolorgouachecollagestill lifeabstract composition
Common works and media
Pougny worked across an unusually broad range of media. Collectors may encounter oil paintings on canvas and panel, gouaches, watercolors, pastels, collages, assemblages, sculptures, and graphic works including illustrations and stage designs. His early Russian-period output includes abstract reliefs, Suprematist compositions, and mixed-media collages. French-period works are typically figurative still lifes, landscapes, interior scenes, and portraits in oil or gouache. Prints and works on paper from both periods appear at auction with some regularity.
Market and appraisal context
Jean Pougny (Ivan Puni) has a well-established auction footprint with 335 recorded lots, 156 of which have realized prices, spanning nearly four decades from 1987 to April 2026. The price distribution is wide: realized prices range from $25 for posthumous prints and minor works on paper to $160,000 for major early-period compositions, with a median of $1,900 and an interquartile range of $496–$6,500. The market is anchored by blue-chip auction houses—Sotheby's and Christie's appear as the top two houses by frequency—alongside strong representation from French and Continental specialists including Tajan, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Millon & Associés, Piasa, and Gros-Delettrez, plus Hammersite for Russian-art-focused sales. Liquidity is moderate but steady: 13 lots appeared in the trailing 12 months versus 20 in the prior 12 months, suggesting a slight softening. The highest recent confirmed sale is €7,200 for an oil on cardboard (Piasa, July 2025) and $70,000 for the painting 'Cabaret' (Hammersite, September 2024), indicating that important Russian-period or early French-period works still command five-figure sums while later figurative works and prints trade in the low hundreds to low thousands.
Auction categories and appraisal factors
Common auction categories
- oil painting
- gouache
- watercolor
- collage
- prints and graphic works
Value drivers
- Works from the Russian avant-garde period (1912-1919) are scarcer and tend to command stronger prices than later French-period figurative works
- Provenance and authenticity documentation are critical due to the artist's two distinct name identities (Puni vs. Pougny) and the history of Russian avant-garde forgery concerns
- Medium affects collector interest: oil paintings and early collages are more sought after than works on paper
- Period is the strongest price driver: Russian avant-garde works (c. 1912–1919) such as Constructivist and Suprematist compositions are significantly rarer and command prices an order of magnitude above French-period figurative works
- Medium heavily influences value: oil paintings on canvas or cardboard typically achieve the highest prices, followed by important collages; prints and works on paper trade at substantially lower levels (as low as $40 for posthumous reproductions)
- Provenance quality is a material value factor given documented forgery concerns in the broader Russian avant-garde market; works with exhibition history, gallery labels, or scholarly catalogue entries attract premiums
Appraisal caveats
- No auction-house or price-database source was available in the source pack; valuation factors are inferred from the artist's career trajectory and general market patterns for Russian avant-garde artists.
- Attribution can be complicated by the artist's use of multiple names across countries; auction records may appear under 'Ivan Puni,' 'Iwan Puni,' 'Jean Pougny,' or 'Jean Albert Pougny.'
- Of 335 recorded lots, only 156 (47%) have confirmed realized prices; unsold lots and those without published results are excluded from price-distribution calculations, so the actual median may differ
- Several recent lots listed by Auktionshaus Schwab and Hammersite show no price realized, which may indicate estimates not met, withdrawn lots, or post-sale private negotiations not reflected in the data
Evidence
Sources for artist context
This source-grounded artist context passed Appraisily's promotion threshold: high confidence, strong sources.
- Library of Congress library authority
- RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History library authority
- VIAF library authority
- The Museum of Modern Art museum or university
- Tate museum or university
- Wikidata library authority
Data basis
This page is built from Appraisily's public auction market index. Private transactions, incomplete sale feeds, and attribution changes may not be fully represented.
Artist value FAQ
How much is Jean Pougny worth?
Comparable public auction sales are the best starting point, but final value depends on the specific artwork, condition, size, medium, provenance, and attribution confidence.
Can Appraisily value my Jean Pougny artwork?
Yes. Appraisily can review photos, dimensions, signatures, condition, provenance, and comparable market data to prepare a current valuation.