# Eileen Agar artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/eileen-agar/
Profile generated: 2026-05-24T11:03:10.114Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1899-12-01
- Death date: 1991-11-17
- Nationality: British, Argentine
- Movements: Surrealism, Abstract art
- Common media: Painting (oil, acrylic, gouache, watercolour), Photography, Collage, Assemblage, Mixed media (found objects)

## About Eileen Agar

Eileen Agar (1899–1991) was an Argentine-born British painter, photographer, and collagist who became one of the most distinctive voices in British Surrealism. Born in Buenos Aires to a British family, she moved to England in 1911 and studied under Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Fine Art in the mid-1920s. Agar was the only professional British woman artist to exhibit at the landmark 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London, a role that secured her place in the movement's history. Over a seven-decade career she worked across painting, collage, assemblage, and photography, often combining found natural objects with painterly techniques. Her circle included Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Paul Éluard, Roland Penrose, and Lee Miller, and a 1937 visit to Picasso and Dora Maar proved especially formative. She continued producing abstract and surrealist compositions into the late 1980s.

## Common works and media

Agar is best known for Surrealist paintings, collages, and assemblages incorporating found natural objects such as shells, rocks, and marine material. She also produced experimental photographs and later large-scale colourful abstract paintings. Collectors may encounter early portraits from the late 1920s, photomontages, mixed-media constructions, editioned prints, and works on paper including gouaches, watercolours, and ink drawings.

## Market and appraisal context

Eileen Agar's work appears at auction chiefly as paintings, collages, photographs, and mixed-media assemblages. Collectors should note that works from her 1930s Surrealist period tend to attract the strongest interest, particularly pieces with documented exhibition at the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition or provenance linking them to her modernist circle. Provenance, medium, condition, and attribution are key valuation factors; mixed-media works incorporating found materials warrant careful condition reports, and photographic prints should be checked for edition details. Comparable public auction records from major houses provide the most reliable pricing benchmarks.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum and authority sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realised prices, and comparable lots when those records are available.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3049418
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Agar
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500009712
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/76162165/
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/eileen-agar-633
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/628
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/63163
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr89016548