Roger Somville Auction Prices and Value Guide

Roger Somville auction prices are tracked in Appraisily's artist market index, with source-directory coverage of 609 records. Use this page to review sold-lot activity, market context, and valuation factors before requesting a formal appraisal.

Roger Somville auction prices: quick answer

Roger Somville auction prices depend on medium, size, date, condition, provenance, edition details, attribution confidence, and recent comparable auction sales.

Artist
Roger Somville
Source records
609
Market update
2026-02-16

Roger Somville market snapshot

Roger Somville shows deep auction liquidity with 259 tracked lots. Median realized sale is around $400. Category concentration is still broad or sparse. Last 12 months recorded 23 sales. Latest recorded sale: 2025-12-29.

Realized price distribution

  • Under $1,000 (79.2% · 141 sales)
  • $1,000 to $10,000 (20.8% · 37 sales)
  • $10,000+ (0.0% · 0 sales)
Median sale (last 12 months)
$220
Sales recorded (last 12 months)
23
Median shift vs prior year
0.0%
Latest recorded sale
2025-12-29

Artist context

About Roger Somville

Roger Somville (1923–2014) was a Belgian painter, graphic artist, and designer born in Schaarbeek, Brussels. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, he became one of Belgium's most distinctive voices in figurative realism. Somville positioned himself against the dominant currents of abstract and conceptual art, arguing that realism preserved a human dimension that modernism had abandoned. His work includes paintings, graphic compositions, and design projects, and he is recognized by major authority files including the Library of Congress, Getty ULAN, and RKD. He died in Tervuren in 2014. Collectors encounter Somville's work primarily through Belgian and European auction houses, and his paintings and works on paper appear regularly on the secondary market.

Realismpaintinggraphic artdesignfigurative art

Common works and media

Somville's output includes oil paintings on canvas, works on paper in ink and gouache, graphic prints, and design-related compositions. His subjects are predominantly figurative, often featuring human figures in everyday or monumental settings. He also produced posters and graphic design work. With over 600 catalogued auction appearances, his work circulates regularly on the secondary market, with paintings and prints being the most commonly encountered formats.

Market and appraisal context

Roger Somville has a well-established secondary-market presence with 284 catalogued auction lots spanning from October 1999 through April 2026, of which 200 carry realized prices. The market is almost exclusively Belgian: the ten most active salerooms include Maison Jules Veilinghuis, Bernaerts Auctioneers, MJV Soudant, Horta, Galerie Moderne, Vanderkindere, Cornette de Saint-Cyr-Bruxelles, Brussels Art Auctions, Louiza Auktion & Associés, and Salle de Ventes Saint-Job. Liquidity is steady, with 22 priced lots in the trailing twelve months and 21 in the prior twelve months. The price distribution is wide — from a floor of €60 for small prints to €310,000 at the top — with a median of €400, a 25th percentile at €200, and a 75th percentile at €900. This dispersion reflects a clear medium hierarchy: numbered lithographs and small works on paper cluster in the €80–€300 band, pastels and ink drawings in the €200–€600 band, and oil paintings on canvas regularly achieve €1,000–€2,000 for mid-size figurative compositions, with the strongest prices reserved for large or historically significant canvases. The €310,000 maximum is an extreme outlier and should not be treated as representative.

Auction categories and appraisal factors

Common auction categories

  • Paintings
  • Works on Paper
  • Prints & Multiples

Value drivers

  1. Medium and support — oil on canvas works typically command higher values than works on paper or prints
  2. Provenance and exhibition history given the artist's long career spanning seven decades
  3. Subject matter and period — the artist's figurative realist works from different phases of his career may vary in market demand
  4. Medium and support — oil on canvas commands a substantial premium over works on paper and prints; pastels sit in a middle tier
  5. Dimensions — larger figurative compositions (80 cm+ on the longest side) achieve multiples of the median price
  6. Provenance and authentication — works authenticated by the artist's estate or bearing documented provenance (e.g., acquired directly from the artist) carry added value

Appraisal caveats

  • No major auction-house provenance records or realized prices were found in the collected source pack; appraisal should consult dedicated auction databases for comparable sale data
  • The artist's opposition to abstraction may mean his market is concentrated among collectors of figurative and realist Belgian art rather than a broad international audience
  • The €310,000 maximum price is an extreme outlier; the 75th percentile is €900 and the median is €400, which are far more representative of the typical market
  • Price data is primarily in EUR from Belgian salerooms; the single USD-denominated result ($1,400 at Broward Auction Gallery in 2020) reflects a different buyer pool and should not be directly compared without currency adjustment

Evidence

Sources for artist context

This source-grounded artist context passed Appraisily's promotion threshold: high confidence, strong sources.

Source-grounded artist Markdown

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.

LLM-readable Markdown summary for Roger Somville

LLM summary index · LLM full index

Artist value FAQ

How much is Roger Somville 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 Roger Somville artwork?

Yes. Appraisily can review photos, dimensions, signatures, condition, provenance, and comparable market data to prepare a current valuation.