# Eric Fischl artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/eric-fischl/
Profile generated: 2026-05-06T20:25:30.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1948-03-09
- Nationality: American
- Movements: Contemporary American figurative painting
- Common media: oil painting, watercolor, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, photography-based mixed media

## About Eric Fischl

Eric Fischl (born 1948, New York City) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose figurative work helped re-establish representational painting as a vital force in late-twentieth-century art. After studying at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1970s and teaching at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, he moved to New York in 1978 and soon gained attention for psychologically charged scenes of suburban domestic life, beachgoers, and private interiors. His canvases often place the viewer in an ambiguous narrative moment—figures at ease yet exposed, conversations half-heard—drawing on traditions of realism while remaining sharply contemporary. Over a career spanning five decades, Fischl has explored portraiture, multi-panel compositions, sculpture, and photography-based works. His paintings are held by major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he continues to produce new bodies of work from his ongoing studio practice.

## Common works and media

Collectors and appraisers most frequently encounter Fischl's oil paintings on canvas—particularly beach scenes, domestic interiors, and figurative compositions—along with watercolors, drawings, and prints (etchings, lithographs, and screenprints). He has also produced bronze sculptures, mixed-media works combining photography and paint, and multi-panel painting installations. His documented series range from Early Abstractions (1968–1975) and Early Beach Paintings (1980s–1990s) through later bodies of work such as the Krefeld Project, Art Fair, Hotel Stories, and an ongoing portrait series spanning 1983 to the present.

## Market and appraisal context

Eric Fischl's work appears regularly at Post-War and Contemporary Art auctions, with large-scale oil paintings from his signature beach and interior series of the 1980s and 1990s typically achieving the strongest results. Works on paper, prints, and sculptures by Fischl also circulate widely, often at more accessible price points. Key factors in appraisal include the work's medium, dimensions, date, provenance, exhibition history, and condition. Prints should be evaluated for edition size, signature, and numbering. Fischl's long gallery representation and institutional holdings at museums such as MoMA provide steady market context, though results can vary considerably across his diverse output.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine independent artist-identity research from museum, library-authority, and official sources with auction-house records, sale dates, realized prices, comparable lots, and provenance data when available. Market observations are drawn from publicly documented sales and institutional context, not speculative estimates.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q936534
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Fischl
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500023590
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/95826676/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84179278
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/1889
- RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/28136
- Eric Fischl: http://www.ericfischl.com/