# August Sander artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/august-sander/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T11:50:45.882Z
Quality: medium confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: German
- Movements: Documentary photography
- Common media: Black-and-white photography, Portrait photography

## Portrait

![August Sander](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/August_Sander.jpeg)
August Sander · see-source-page
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Sander

## About August Sander

August Sander (1876–1964) was a German photographer whose portraits became a defining record of twentieth-century social life. Beginning in the mid-1920s, he developed People of the Twentieth Century, an ambitious survey of German society arranged by occupations, social roles, and cultural groups. The unfinished project encompasses more than 600 photographs divided among seven volumes and nearly 50 portfolios. Sander photographed farmers, tradespeople, professionals, artists, religious figures, and urban subjects, often using clothing, tools, workplaces, and surroundings to clarify each sitter's social context. His 1929 book Face of Our Time introduced an important selection of this portrait work. Although portraiture remains central to his reputation, his broader practice also included landscape, nature, architectural, and street photography. Collectors therefore encounter Sander through individual black-and-white photographs, project-related images, portfolios, and publications whose documentary importance extends beyond the identity of any single sitter.

## Common works and media

Sander is best known for black-and-white portrait photographs showing people in their social, occupational, or domestic settings. Auction and appraisal contexts may include individual portraits, photographs connected with People of the Twentieth Century, portfolio material, and images published in or associated with Face of Our Time. His broader output also encompasses landscapes, nature studies, architecture, and street photography. The relationship between an individual print and a documented project, portfolio, or publication should be established rather than assumed.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraisal begins by determining whether a photograph belongs to, or is associated with, People of the Twentieth Century and whether its volume, portfolio, and subject category can be documented. Sander's catalogue includes portraits and documentary images alongside landscape, nature, architectural, and street views, making broad artist-level comparisons unreliable. Relevant public auction records should be compared only after matching the image, project context, subject, and work type. The collected source pack does not contain detailed major-auction-house lot analysis, edition histories, or price-trend evidence. Physical print date, process, dimensions, condition, provenance, inscriptions, stamps, mounts, and edition status therefore require separate object-level examination before a value conclusion is reached.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine public artist-identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Source limitations and unresolved object-level questions remain part of the appraisal record.

## Sources

- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/5145
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q61530
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/54216083/
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/august-sander-5319
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500008096
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Sander
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/august-sander/