# André Kertész artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/andre-kertesz/
Profile generated: 2026-04-30T02:45:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1894-07-02
- Death date: 1985-09-28
- Nationality: Hungarian, American
- Movements: Modern Photography, Photo Essay
- Common media: Gelatin silver prints, Polaroid SX-70

## About André Kertész

André Kertész (1894–1985), born Andor Kertész in Budapest, was a Hungarian-American photographer whose innovative compositional approach helped define modern photography. He began photographing in 1912 with a box camera and soon developed a distinctive style built on unusual angles, candid observation, and a natural gift for form. After serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War, he moved to Paris in 1925 and worked as a freelance photographer, contributing to the rise of the photo essay and mingling with the interwar avant-garde. In 1936 he emigrated to the United States and continued working for nearly five decades from his New York base. Although his unconventional vision was slow to gain wide recognition, Kertész is now considered one of the seminal figures of twentieth-century photography. Major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, hold extensive collections of his work.

## Common works and media

Kertész worked almost exclusively in black-and-white photography for most of his career, primarily producing gelatin silver prints. Common subjects include Paris street scenes and café life, Hungarian village and rural scenes from his early years, experimental distorted nudes from the Distortions series, Washington Square and Greenwich Village scenes from his decades in New York, still-life compositions, and Polaroid SX-70 color photographs from his final years. Print formats range from small contact prints to enlarged exhibition prints, and his output spans more than seven decades.

## Market and appraisal context

André Kertész maintains a deep and liquid secondary market for fine-art photography. Appraisily auction records index 883 total lots, of which 591 carry realized prices, spanning from January 2001 through January 2026. Sale activity is steady, with 24 lots offered in the most recent 12-month window and 23 in the prior year. The work trades predominantly in the Photographs category at a concentrated group of major houses: Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Swann Auction Galleries, Bonhams, Heritage Auctions, and several European specialists including Artcurial, OstLicht Auctions, Kunsthaus Lempertz KG, Ader, and Finarte. Price dispersion is wide. At the low end, later-printed or small-format lots realise a few hundred euros or dollars (e.g. €200 for a later print of Corsica, 1932 at Adams Amsterdam; €400 for Gypsy girl, Arles, 1979). The interquartile range runs from roughly $2,500 to $8,125, with a median near $4,500. Iconic vintage prints from the Paris period command five-figure prices: a signed Satiric Dancer, Paris, 1926 achieved $11,430 at Christie's in October 2025, and a stamped Chairs, the Tuileries, 1925 brought $10,160 the same day. The ceiling is substantially higher: the recorded maximum is $464,000, reflecting top-tier vintage prints at major houses. The Distortions series (1933) trades actively across multiple houses, and notable Paris-period images such as Chez Mondrian (1926) and Mondrian's Studio (1926) appear repeatedly with strong results. Overall, the market shows consistent demand, reliable liquidity through top-tier venues, and a clear price hierarchy driven by vintage status, period, and image significance.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

André Kertész maintains a deep and liquid secondary market for fine-art photography. Appraisily auction records index 883 total lots, of which 591 carry realized prices, spanning from January 2001 through January 2026. Sale activity is steady, with 24 lots offered in the most recent 12-month window and 23 in the prior year. The work trades predominantly in the Photographs category at a concentrated group of major houses: Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Swann Auction Galleries, Bonhams, Heritage Auctions, and several European specialists including Artcurial, OstLicht Auctions, Kunsthaus Lempertz KG, Ader, and Finarte. Price dispersion is wide. At the low end, later-printed or small-format lots realise a few hundred euros or dollars (e.g. €200 for a later print of Corsica, 1932 at Adams Amsterdam; €400 for Gypsy girl, Arles, 1979). The interquartile range runs from roughly $2,500 to $8,125, with a median near $4,500. Iconic vintage prints from the Paris period command five-figure prices: a signed Satiric Dancer, Paris, 1926 achieved $11,430 at Christie's in October 2025, and a stamped Chairs, the Tuileries, 1925 brought $10,160 the same day. The ceiling is substantially higher: the recorded maximum is $464,000, reflecting top-tier vintage prints at major houses. The Distortions series (1933) trades actively across multiple houses, and notable Paris-period images such as Chez Mondrian (1926) and Mondrian's Studio (1926) appear repeatedly with strong results. Overall, the market shows consistent demand, reliable liquidity through top-tier venues, and a clear price hierarchy driven by vintage status, period, and image significance.

### Appraisal notes

An appraisal of a Kertész photograph would combine these auction records with a physical examination of the print. Key elements to document include: (1) Medium and process — gelatin silver print versus Polaroid SX-70 or other; later prints are explicitly noted in many lot descriptions and carry lower values. (2) Dimensions and format — small contact prints, standard enlargements, and large exhibition prints occupy different price tiers. (3) Signature, stamps, and annotations — the presence of a pencil signature, estate copyright stamp, or titled/dated verso markings directly affects value, as seen in the premium achieved for signed works at Christie's versus unsigned later prints at regional houses. (4) Condition — foxing, creasing, silvering, or fading materially reduce value in photography. (5) Provenance — tracing ownership to the artist, the estate, or a known collection (e.g. the Schroeder collection cited in the Setdart lot) strengthens attribution and value. (6) Edition or print date — vintage prints made near the negative date command the highest premiums; estate-stamped later prints trade at lower but still meaningful levels. (7) Comparable lots — the 591 priced records in the Appraisily index, filtered by period, image, and print generation, provide a broad comparable set for market-value estimation.

### Valuation factors

- Vintage status: prints made near the negative date (especially Paris and Hungarian periods) command substantial premiums over lifetime later prints or posthumous estate editions
- Iconographic significance: well-known images such as Chez Mondrian, Satiric Dancer, Mondrian's Studio, and key Distortions prints achieve consistently higher prices than lesser-known titles
- Signature and stamps: pencil-signed prints and those with photographer or estate stamps on verso are priced above unstamped or unsigned examples
- Print size and format: large exhibition prints generally exceed small contact prints or standard-format later prints in value
- Condition: photographic prints are sensitive to handling, light exposure, and environmental factors; condition reports are essential to valuation
- Provenance: documented ownership history tracing to the artist, the estate, or a named private collection strengthens both attribution and value
- Period: Paris-period (1925–1936) and early Hungarian work attracts the strongest collector interest; New York-period work trades actively but at generally lower levels; Polaroid SX-70 late work occupies a distinct niche
- Edition and print generation: catalogue raisonné references or estate documentation confirming print date and edition status are critical for accurate pricing

### Collector notes

- The Kertész market is broad and accessible across multiple price tiers. Entry-level later prints can be acquired for a few hundred dollars at regional auction houses, while top-tier vintage Paris-period prints at Christie's or Sotheby's reach five and occasionally six figures. The Distortions series is frequently available and trades across a wide range depending on print vintage and image number. Collectors should pay close attention to lot descriptions that specify 'printed later' — these are explicitly lower in value than vintage prints of the same image. Multiple houses offer Kertész regularly, so competitive bidding across venues is feasible. Currency differences matter: Canadian-dollar results at Waddington's and euro results at European houses are not directly comparable to USD results at Christie's New York without conversion. The consistent flow of roughly two dozen lots per year suggests healthy liquidity for both buyers seeking specific images and sellers looking to realise value.

### Market caveats

- Price records span multiple currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, CAD) and have not been normalised; direct comparison requires currency conversion to a common unit.
- The $464,000 maximum reflects a small number of exceptional vintage prints and is not representative of the typical trading range; the median of $4,500 and interquartile range of $2,500–$8,125 are more useful benchmarks for most appraisals.
- Many lots are described as 'printed later' or bear estate stamps rather than the artist's own signature; these are different value tiers that should not be mixed in comparable analysis.
- Kertész's prolific output over seven decades means the same negative may exist as a vintage print, a lifetime later print, and a posthumous estate print — each at a distinct price level. Lot descriptions do not always make this distinction clear.
- The Appraisily auction-record index aggregates data from multiple feed sources; individual lot details (exact dimensions, full condition, edition numbers) may be incomplete and should be verified against the auction-house catalogue entry.
- Attribution should reference estate records or catalogue raisonné entries when available, as the volume of Kertész material in circulation increases the risk of misattributed or incorrectly dated prints.

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily auction record index: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/andre-kertesz/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-andre-kertesz-1894-1985-vanessa-harwood-1981-history-of-dance-exhibition-poster-1981-20-c-b8f4d22806

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine structured artist-identity research from museum, library-authority, and biographical sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. The identity profile above is grounded in entries from the Library of Congress, VIAF, the RKD, Wikidata, and the Museum of Modern Art.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q241754
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79029841
- RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History): https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/376044
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/71392944/
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/3072
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Kert%C3%A9sz
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500019907