# Etienne Ret artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/etienne-ret/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T18:23:38.876Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1900-01-06
- Death date: 1996-06-21
- Nationality: American
- Common media: Painting, Watercolor, Engraving and printmaking, Graphic art, Illustration

## About Etienne Ret

Etienne Ret (1900–1996), also identified as Étienne Perret and Etienneret, was an American painter, engraver, and graphic artist of French origin. Born in Cusset, France, he worked across painting, watercolor, printmaking, and illustration; French authority data also associates him with both French- and English-language expression. His career is documented in Getty ULAN, VIAF, BnF-linked authority data, Wikidata, IdRef, and Art UK, giving him a comparatively clear entity trail despite limited narrative material in the collected sources. IdRef also records his 1951 book Advice to a Young Artist, showing that his activity extended to writing about art. Collectors may encounter Ret through paintings, watercolors, engravings, graphic works, or illustrated material catalogued under several name forms. No movement or school is assigned here because the available institutional and authority sources do not establish one. This profile therefore emphasizes verifiable identity, media, and auction-record context rather than speculative stylistic classification.

## Common works and media

Documented work types include paintings, watercolors, engravings, graphic works, and illustrations. Because Ret is recorded under multiple name forms, cataloguers should check variant spellings when researching signatures and previous listings. The collected sources do not establish a definitive subject taxonomy, named series, or edition practice, so those details should be determined from the individual object and reliable cataloguing rather than generalized here.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraisal of a work attributed to Etienne Ret should begin by reconciling its signature or cataloguing name with his documented variants: Etienne Ret, Étienne Ret, Étienne Perret, and Etienneret. Medium also matters because authority sources associate him with painting, watercolor, engraving, graphic art, and illustration, so comparisons should be drawn from genuinely similar work types. Appraisily’s artist input identifies a substantial auction-record set, but the collected public source pack does not provide readable major-auction-house essays, individual sale results, or evidence of a price trend. Any valuation should therefore rely on object-specific evidence and comparable public lots matched by work type and sale date, rather than a broad artist-level prediction. The available sources support identity and category context more strongly than price interpretation.

## 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 coverage and market evidence vary, so object-specific appraisal remains essential.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21288851
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500108004
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/44575151/
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/16333854X
- Bibliothèque nationale de France: https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb149735255
- Art UK: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/ret-tienne-19001996
- Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne_Ret
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/etienne-ret/